


Behold the Eyes

by BleedingHeart911



Category: Monster High
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-04-11 06:58:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4425788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleedingHeart911/pseuds/BleedingHeart911
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deuce pisses off his godly father, Poseidon, who curses him to be human. The result is chaos for the monsters and gods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've taken over a year to work on this. No regrets, I've learned a lot about Greek and Egyptian mythology.

"Okay, Mom, I'm coming. I'm not whispering this is just the tone of my voice. No, you will not hear any 'good news' anytime soon. Actually never. You are never getting grandkids!" Deuce harshly whispered on his phone before hitting the End button.

It was four in the morning. Despite being tired from a victorious game of Casketball, and the after party, Deuce Gorgon got dressed and prepared to leave his house.

He sent a text message to his girlfriend to explain where he'd be in the morning. On the nightstand next to his bed he saw her glowing iCoffin vibrate. In his bed was a sleeping Cleo; he kissed the top of her head. His snakes slithered past his forehead to snuggle in between her black and gold-streaked hair. Looking at the Eye of Horas bracelet on her wrist, Deuce knew she'd be safe while alone.

(At the Pier)

Maddy Gorgon wore bright orange sunglasses even though the sun wouldn't be up for a few hours. She stared at the shoreline as she leaned against the pier's fence. The obnoxious sound of her son's motorbike pulled her down to earth; it reminded her that her life was mundane and happy, all other nights.

Deuce walked to stare at the same shoreline his mother watched.

"You should've brought a scarf." Maddy told her boy, feeling the muggy chill.

"I'll remember that next time." Deuce let a beat pass and then said, "I didn't mean what I said earlier."

"I know. I'm bound to get my first little mocha-colored grandchild by your graduation. *sigh*Deuce, what would it take for you to impregnate Cleo with triplets? I honestly can't wait for one after the another."

Deuce's green snakes stuck their tongues at his mother. In response, Maddy's thick orange, red and yellow snakes twisted out of their confined bun shape to bear their longer fangs.

"How long does he expect us to wait?" Deuce asked, intending to change the subject of their conversation.

With a brush of her hand, Maddy put her hair back in place. "It won't be much longer. Granola bar?"

The search inside her large, messy purse was halted by the break of a wave. The water beneath them was at a calm sitting when they arrived. It began to crash against the pier harder and faster when the person they were waiting for got closer.

Years of unpleasant visits made Deuce anxious to get this one over with. What was more annoying was Maddy's attempts at flatten his snake-hawk.

"Remember to be respectful and sweet and don't be smart because it will only bite you in the neck, matakia mou." Maddy told her son; her words were stern but not without affection.

"What does he think he's going to get out of this?" Deuce asked; he felt his snakes' head being smashed near his ears.

"Most likely he's going to ask the usual- 'what are you going to do with a mortal life?', 'when will you reach your potential?', 'will you find my lost fleece again?' all that jazz."

Cracking his hands relieved a little of his annoyance. Deuce let his snakes' retain their normal place, standing straight along the center of his head, and braced himself for another visit with his father.

The water was green before, now it was black and shined like silver. A very large wave began to build one hundred miles away from the pier. As it drove closer, it gathered in size. The Gorgons watched this tall arrived and then evaporate a second before hitting the fence of the pier.

A figure, in the shape of a muscular man, shined in the mist of the wave. He solidified into a human shape and walked out of the moist air and on to the fence. His balance was magical as he stood there. He then stepped down and closed the twelve feet distance between himself and the Gorgons. His outfit was a navy-blue suit with a trident pin on his left pocket.

"You're looking well, Medusa." The sea God told his former lover.

"Don't act too shocked." The Gorgon replied, absorbing his old-man appearance. She knew he could appear in any form he wanted. He wasn't as flamboyant as Zeus but this older-than-middle-age look was quit the pageantry.

"Hello, boy. I see you've kept yourself in hero-shape."

"What the Styx do you want, Poseidon?" Deuce asked, not buying the polite act.

The God smiled in the neatly trimmed black and silver beard that covered his face. "A salty sea dog, aren't you, boy? Alright, I'll cut to the tide; it's your time."

"My time to?"

"To claim your full demi-god title and soak up the powers you've put off to instead enjoy the mediocre childhood you've lived so far."

"Gee, Pop, I remember trying that already and not getting all the wet and wild fun that was promised to me." Deuce said, more sarcastic than impatient.

"Deuce, being a grown man isn't about having fun all the time- you have responsibilities to your family. To me. You are due for a quest to prove to the Mountain that you are-"

"'Are ready to prove I have all the strength, cleverness and majesty it takes to make it up on the clouds and live the awesome life of luxury that comes with having all the power over the toy world I see below me.' I've heard this speech before."

Poseidon stayed quiet and watched his son's arrogance grow.

"You said the same thing to me when I was thirteen. And then I believed it and willing went on the trip; got some scars, had a laugh and met up with my big brother for the first time ever because you forgot to introduce us."

"I've had a very active social life." The water God said.

"Not cool, dude. Also not cool to learn that all the destruction and drama you Gods cause on Earth is out of boredom in being immortal. Oh, and it really pissed me off when you went after my friends last year just to goat me into another quest."

Maddy heard the water rumble and knew Posiden was getting pissed. "Deuce-"

"Mom, I'm sorry to you but I'm not putting up with this." The Gorgon walked up to his father to tell him face to face, "Find another errand boy, you have plenty of sons and daughters to choose from. Plenty you haven't even met yet."

Stupid boy, Maddy thought. She put her hand to her forehead.

The teenager knew his father could drown him or turn him into a barnacle. Deuce also knew Posiden wouldn't want to damage one of his more impressive offspring. This was a certain fact for him because most of the other half-siblings Deuce met were less than confident and happy. He was popular and had an easy-going life.

Poseidon studied his son; handsome, armed with formidable powers and a stupidity that could allow him to brave almost anything. He'd make a heck of a God, but first he needed to learn manners, Posiden thought.

"You're quite proud for being only a mere human." Poseidon remarked. Maddy heard the thunder surrounding them. She wanted to shield her son but she knew one of them had to stay alive, at least to carry the other home.

Over his sunglasses Deuce raised an eyebrow. "I'm a monster, Shamu."

Poseidon put his hand over Deuce's sunglasses. Before he could raise an arm to remove the moldy smelling, crusty hand pain shot into his head.

There wasn't a scream. Deuce's back arched away from Posiden but the God keep his hand place where it was; over Deuce's eyes.

Maddy painfully watched her son's head transform under the magic of the God. His body fell- not dead but limp from the experience.

"You raised him well, Medusa. Hera would be proud." Poseidon told the mother who had fists at her heart.

"This will only lead to pain for you, pootsos. Horrible, awful pain." Maddy promised the selfish God.

Poseidon peered at his son and hoped the penance he went through would teach him better behavior when faced with his superiors. As the sun began to peak, Poseidon let go of his Earthly hologram and evaporated back to Olympus.

Rushing on her five-inch-heels, Maddy went on her knees to stroke her boy's head.

"Moro mou, wake up. There's fresh galotyri for you if you wake up."

Deuce heard his mother speak in a distance. His head was discombobulated, it was missing something in the background of his brain. Where there should've been external feeling of extra limbs to control, not unlike his fingers and face parts, he felt hollowness in his skull.

He opened his eyes at the wrong moment because the sun had just come up and he shades were off. Instinctly he shut his eyes.

"Can we hold off next family reunion for another million years, Mom?" Deuce said, his finger when to pinch the bridge between his eyes.

He felt something soft and thin touch the top of his knuckles. He let go of the bridge to feel the strange strand. It felt like mammal's hair. He gently tugged at it and realized it was attacked to him.

Maddy's lips began to tremble as her son ran his fingers through the brown, lifeless hair that was now on his head.

"What the….what in the. Mom, where are my shades?"

"I am so sorry, Deuce."

"Mother. I am serious, I need any sort of eye wear right now." Deuce kept his eyes shut, his chest was starting to rise as his breathing got faster.

Because she wouldn't be able to stand watching his face as he realized the truth, Medusa took off her sunglass and put them on her boy's face. Maddy's tropically colored snakes twisted in heartbreak.

She kept her eyes shut, stone tears began to fall.

Although he stumbled, Deuce walked to the edge of the pier to see his reflection in the calm green water.

There was brown hair, as long as his snakes should've been, lying limply on his head. He took off his jacket; he was wearing a sleeveless shirt underneath and saw his green diamond birthmark had disappeared from his bicep.

As Deuce took off his mother's loaned sunglasses he discovered two things; 1, the sun and all the colors in the world were bright daggers to his formerly sheltered eyes.

And 2nd; his happy life as a monster was over.


	2. Chp 2 Dart

"Dear Cleo,

You're awesome but I think we should start seeing other monsters. Don't pine for me; it'll make you look pathetic. I'll be fine because I am never stepping foot in Monster High ever again.

Peace, Deuce

p.s. I'd appreciate it if you'd clear out my locker. Do whatever you want with it."

After the letter was read it was ripped apart. The small shredded of the paper were tossed into an open grave.

The daughter of the Mummy wore black pants suit. The trim was hot pink, the buttons were of little white skulls with bowties on their heads. There was a pink ascot under the collar that followed out almost like the pelt of a flower. On the right side of her chest was small golden pin of a winged sun. Her black hair was hylighted with purple and cut short to her chin line.

She stood at the edge of the seven-foot hole. To her left was her bestfriend, the very intelligent and very gentle Ghoulia Yelps. Ghoulia wore a plaid hot pink& white skirt that reached her knees. Her knee socks were solid white with small cherry designs around the end of the band. Her long blue hair was tied into two braids with red-cherry hairpins.

Across from them was Jackson Jekyll, wearing a suit like the mummy's except with a black and yellow tie. The half-Normie boy held Cleo's iCoffin, which was streaming live what it recorded, to all the students connected to her Critter account. It reached the entire student body.

"Personally, I like to hold on to my belongs into the afterlife and beyond." Cleo informed her viewers, "They presently and will later educate monsters on the wonders of my life. Deuce Gorgon (she said with extreme distaste) requested to be forgotten with his sudden disappearance. If I had any respect for him as a man I would just dump them in but instead I will teach my good subjects on what a despicable, wretched, awful boy Gorgon really was! "

The worried blue zombie held up a checklist as four of Cleo's servants walked up to the open grave. One of them was carrying a box filled with the items found in the Gorgon's locker. Which was opened courteously of Cleo's loyal servants.

One of the canine-face servants held up a Bite-ology textbook.

"This text book could be kept for it's scholarly information. It will be buried because that slacker drew dozens of dirty pictures in it! They are shameful because the main subject in those pictures would have never submitted to a third of his unimaginative ideas!"

Cleo snapped her fingers; a servant used a lighter to set it on fire. Then threw the book in the hole. Another one took out the box a bright green iCoffin.

"On this phone are hundreds of pictures of the treacherous snake in the grass as he built friendships with his boy friends, ghoul friends, family members and a thousand more of one beautiful princess that did not receive what she was promised from the weak-chinned, ill-tempered hooligan!"

Cleo ran her index finger past her throat as to initiate death. The servant followed her order and crushed the phone in his hands.

"Next we have his casket-ball uniform. As you probably know, the google-eyed bum was a terrible shot who could never be depended on to slam a dunk. And believe me when I say I mean never!"

In the creepateria, Cleo's closest friends watched her give Deuce's 'obituary' on a laptop.

"Poor Cleo. She's in so much heartbreak" Frankie said, her yellow and blue eye both full of sympathy for her friend.

"Funny how her vile speech is still warmer than the other rumors flying about Deuce leaving." Lagoona said, her webbed hands holding her blue face on the table they sat at.

"The latest one is says he lost a drag-on race and is now working as a grease monkey. In Guam." Clawdeen wolf said as she filed her claws.

"I prefer the one about Deuce giving up on society and roaming the earth in search of great spiritual truth." Lagoona said, trying to bring in positive vibes.

"I just can't believe he's gone. Deuce loved Monster High, and everyone here loved him." Frankie stated, looking over her friends' shoulder at a whimpering Clawd.

The werewolf had his ears down as he sadly watched a ball roll along the table and fall off the end. Clawd's concerned vampire-girlfriend tried to rub his ears but to no avail.

Interrupting the somber mood, Heath Burns joined the ghouls' table. His jacket was open and it could be seen that there were char marks on his sleeves.

"Ya know what's hurts the most about Deuce ditching us, my ladies?" The fire-element asked.

"Without the limit of someone stoning you your obnoxiousness is free to climb the walls?" Clawdeen suggested, catching a warning look from Abbey who had just sat down next to the ghouls as well.

"That at first that was a worry. Now it's the pressure of being the hottest guy at school. I have my baby," he said as he took Abbey's icy blue hand, "but the kids are swarming me! I can't go anywhere without eyes going up and down my bod- like I'm for sale!"

"Really mate?" Lagoona asked in a deadpan sort of voice.

"Hi ghouls. Give Cleo my best." Scarah Screams said as she walked with Hoodude pass the respective group's table.

With her telekinesis she could read the Heath thought her pupil-less eyes were staring at him. The lass didn't want to be unkind, so she just ignored him.

"Did you see that!" Heath waved his arms, "She was almost ravenous!"

"Abbey, please explain to Heath what the situation is really about." Clawdeen asked her Yeti friend.

"I will. Heath, you not need the worry. I keep eye out for hussies and if one show face I will beat them down like Yak to itty-bitty Yak-biting bug." The ghoul with the sparkling white hair promised her boyfriend, very seriously.

Heath's amber eyes glistened, he felt so lucky to have a girlfriend stronger than other ghouls, and most dudes. Frankie found the moment sweet, Lagoona felt the same but less and Clawdeen felt less than that.

The mint-green girl then heard a beep from her phone. It was a call from a friend who didn't attend Monster High. Yet, Frankie amended in her mind.

"His Claire." She said to her caller.

"Hey. You ghouls still missing a tall guy who comes with sunglasses? Cause I think I found him." The human goth-girl asked over the phone.

Frankie's bolts sparked with excitement. "Oh my ghoul! Where is he? How is he? Is he in trouble? Lost a limb? In with the mob? Married to winged skeleton?"

The others watched her talk but only understood half of what she said.

"Cool down, Frankie before you electrocute all your friends. What's-his-name is at my school. Sleeping. Class just let out but no one has the gull to wake him up."

"Are they freaking out cause of his snakes? They're not venomous, Cleo has bites on her neck and tummy all the time."

"Actually he's wearing a hoodie. A teacher asked him to take it off but he accepted dentition instead."

"Oh thank goodness he's alright! Wait, why is he there? Is he going as an exchanged student? Who did we get? I wonder if the new student was eaten before we noticed- that wouldn't be cool. I-"

"Frankie, these are all very nice questions that I cannot answer. Why don't you come here and see if it's him or not."

"If?"

"Honestly, I don't know if your guy or some guy that looks like him cause he's acting like a real-"

"Monster?"

"I was going to say joyless loser. And that's coming from me." The content goth Normie told her monstrously cheerful companion.

Frankie bit her lip. She debated on whether or not this was good news to tell her friends. And whether or not she wanted to see whom this 'guy' was.

Since the masquerade of Halloween, Normies and Monsters were less scared to see one another. That did not mean, however, that Normies were 100% comfortable with seeing monsters walking in their hallway.

On her five-inch heels, Frankie walked down the halls of Salem High. At her brightly stitched side were the blue-blonde Lagoona and the fiercely furry Clawdeen. At their school they were stared at for being cute and fashionable. At this Normie School, Lagoona felt eyes along her fins that her rolled-up sleeved exposed and Clawdeen resisted growling at smirks towards her pointy ears.

"Hold the phone." Lilith VanHelscream said as she approached the trio of ghouls.

The girl with silver daggers as accessories and combat-ready boots stood straight. She stared at them with condescension.

"Since when do you ghouls have a uniform code? I mean, honestly, your skirts are usually a lot more mini than this." The former-hunter said pointing to Frankie and Lagoona's skirts. Clawdeen wore a pantsuit (with the tiniest designs of moons sewn black in her coat.)

"It's a complicated ordeal to explain- short story is Cleo asked for sorority while she's feeling down in the gullies." Lagoona said, touching the braid her blonde hair was twisted into. It was very messy and decorated with shell-pins.

"Right. I heard that limp-noodle had broken up with her. Little dweeb never deserved a beautiful ghoul like that." Lilith scoffed, but there was a small smiled around the edges of her mouth.

Clawdeen saw the smile, and smelled the eagerness coming from Lilith to 'comfort' Cleo in her vulnerable/ single state.

"Hi girls!" Chad the human said as he saw the bizarre but pretty ghouls stand next to Lilith. He arrived with Claire.

"Nice outfits." Claire said, her raccoon-like eyes in disbelief.

"We're in mourning." Clawdeen explained.

"I thought most everyone was dead at your school. Wait, was that offensive- I'm sorry, I didn't- I mean I don't want to-"

Frankie interrupted Chad's mumbles by kindly saying, "Don't freak- pun intended- we're all friends here."

Seeing the mean-spirited chatter from behind the ghouls, Claire allowed Frankie to be naive. Clawdeen heard it; she folded her arms and sunk her claws into her own fur to keep cool.

"Let's go see why you three are really here." Claire said, curious to how this would play out.

In the British Literature room, there was a sleeping young man. He wouldn't have been surprised to see three girls were watching him. He'd found out recently that some girls found unfriendliness to be romantic brooding in handsome boys. He loathed such dopey girls but in his present state of mind he felt he didn't deserve to be around smart or emotionally stable girls.

Frankie quietly approached him.

"Deuce?" she whispered, she meant to poke him gently but in her nervousness she sent a tiny spark into his shoulder.

The boy jumped awake, he held up a fist but then saw the three ghouls.

"Uhh, no offense, but monsters don't go here." He said, relived his sunglasses hadn't fallen off his nose.

"We-we don't." Frankie stammered, confused by his unfamiliarity.

"Deuce, why are fanging out in a Normie school?" Clawdeen asked, not impressed by the boring gray hoodie he was wearing.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but my name's Larry. Larry Smith. I am not the monster you're looking for."

"How'd you know we were looking for a monster?" Lagoona asked, suspicious of the bloke with the bland attitude.

"Why else would three beautiful monster babes be in a school filled with us boring, lifeless, boring Normies?" Larry asked, seemingly bored with the conversation.

"Okay, this is creepy- and not in the good way. Deuce, tell us what you did and why you're acting so, well, douchey ." Clawdeen demanded, felling less than patient with the weird dude who reminded her very much and not at all of Deuce Gorgon.

"Larry; Lare-Ree." He pronounced slowly. "And if you don't mind, your cutting into my sleep schedule."

Resisting the urge to quiver her lip, Frankie turned around the huddle with her friends.

"I don't think he's Deuce- I mean, they have the same face, body, speech pattern and voice but I don't think it's the same boy." Frankie whispered to her fellow ghouls.

"A dead-ringer but I'm jut not sure." Lagoona said, "Did you gills notice the lack of hissing coming from him? I've heard his snakes snore while sleeping so that's fishy already."

"Should've done this first." Clawdeen said. She broke from the huddle and walked to Larry. He tried to stop her but he couldn't overpower her werewolf strength. The fuzzy ghoul pulled away his hood and yelped in shock to see not snakes but limp mammal hair fall on his head.

"What were you looking for?" Larry asked as he took off his shades. The ghouls flinched but saw he had normal, dull brown eyes underneath.

Clawdeen held a paw to her lips and blushed in embarrassment. "Oh my ghoul, I didn't I mean, I thought you were… I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. Now good bye." Larry said, dismissing the ghouls by putting his head on the table.

Clawdeen lifted a heel to turn around with her ghouls to leave but then she saw something. She saw with her bright yellow eyes a scar on the back of 'Larry's' neck.

The ghoul then put one paw on his head, to keep him still as she pulled back his dumpy sweater.

"Clawdeen! This is not good for Monster-Human relations!" Frankie said as she and Lagoona rushed over to pull Clawdeen away.

"I knew it! It's Deuce! He still has the crescent shaped scar on his back that Clawd gave him!" Claween howled as her friends tugged at her shoulders.

They stopped tugged to look at Larry. He looked angry.

"If you didn't get that scar from wrestling the werewolf who's been your best bro since forever then how you'd get it!? How!?" The she-wolf challenged walking back to look at the 'Normie's' face.

Larry balled his fists and looked furious at Clawdeen. The fury broke into defeat and self-pity.

"Deuce, what happened?" Frankie asked, horrified that her friend had become so helpless. And pale. And HUMAN!

"It doesn't matter, Frankie. Yeah, it is me but I'm not Deuce Gorgon anymore."

"Who decided to name you Larry?" Lagoona asked, afraid of his lack of scales.

"It's the most Normie sounding name ever. It's what I go by now." Deuce admitted to the ghouls.

"How in the hell did you turn into a Normie? Did you lose a fight to a witch or-"

"It doesn't matter, Clawdeen. I'm stuck this way for the rest of my loser life and I can't change that. I don't need everyone to know, and looking at me like you three are doing right now." Deuce said, squinting at their pitying looks.

The human boy put his shades back on; he wasn't adjusted to bright lights after wearing sunglasses for seventeen years straight.

"But Deuce! Everyone been scared to their deaths! We've been imagining the worst and Cleo- "

"Will move on, believe me. She's too strong to ever even think of letting herself be held down." Deuce said, putting his hood back on.

"But she loves you." Frankie said, holding her hands to her heart.

That helps absolutely nothing, Deuce thought.

"How did she dispose of my locker stuff?"

Frankie squirmed in discomfort. "Broadcasted burying it seven-feet deep."

"And?" Expecting his ghoul… his ex-ghoul to be more creative than that.

"Asked rival Casketball teams to spit on the grave. Then put a trash can on top of it." Lagoona admitted, knowing Deuce was getting a small kick out of the attention.

"I'm pretty sure she hates me now for dumping her. And with her capacity to hold grudges, she's not going to come hunting for me any decade soon."

"She wouldn't miss the opportunity to scream her hate-sonnet at you when we tell her you're a ten-minute drive away." Clawdeen said.

"You aren't going to do that. It's too mean and none of you ghouls- not even you, Clawdeen- have it in you to be that mean." Deuce said smugly.

Lagoona debated on her ruthlessness but then saw a dart zoom past her waist and hit Deuce in the neck.

He instantly fell numb on the desk. The ghouls looked at the open classroom dorm to see Lilith with a small wooden dart gun between her lips.

"I wanna make sure this break-up is full swing on both sides." The blonde said, smiling at the uneasy monsters.


	3. Chapter 3 Larry's Tongue

Lilith was infatuated with Cleo. The huntress had never meant a person more fabulous, independent and imperious than the mummy before. She also believed she never would after. The prejudice in their families only made the romance more exciting, and Lilith was happy imagining being co-Queen along Cleo as they would rule over their towns, and eventually the world. There was just one small roadblock in the path to sweet royal lady love; Cleo's boyfriend Deuce.

However, as Lilith watched Cleo slap the boy's face, hope rose under her leopard-skin.

"Uhh, Cleo, I think he's awake now." Frankie told her agitated friend.

She, Clawdeen, Lagoona and the smiling-like-a-cheshire-cat Lilith were standing in the empty Vampa- theatre. They had carried the numb Deuce in and laid him on a sofa used for props in theatre productions. In respect to his wish of keeping the whole 'turned into a Normie' thing underwraps they didn't alert everyone they'd found him. They did, however, alert Ghoulia and Cleo. Ghoulia kept watch over the plasma lock she invented that would kept Spectra out, as Cleo reunited with her ex-boyfriend.

"Oh, so he can feel this?" The mummy asked, nonchalantly giving one more slap to his face. Part of her was furious at him for returning, the other part was annoyed he was wearing such an unflattering hoodie out in public.

"Nice to see you too, Cleo." The sunglass wearing dude groggily said as he woke up to sore cheeks. There was an angry ghoul staring down at him; her eyes sparkled when she was extremely peeved.

"You are a disgusting excuse of a monster and I hate you!" The mummy told him, wishing she had sharp objects on her to slice him.

"Fair enough. Have a good life." He felt his hood hadn't dropped yet. 'Larry' could leave with a little dignity.

He pushed back against the chair to stand up but the mummy pushed him back down.

"I'm not done talking yet." She said slowly with a piercing glare.

Lagoona grabbed Lilith's hand with her below-luke-warm hand to drag the Normie girl out. The ghouls+ Lilith made stepping sounds, opened the door and then closed it while they stood on the inside in the shadows.

Deuce sat up and looked cool and indifferent. "Look, babe-"

"Don't you dare 'babe' me!" Cleo stood up as to tower over him better. "You disappear for a week! Abandon your house- your phone, pretty much all matters of communication and then leave me a John Scream letter! I deserve better than that, Deuce! This school, that worships you almost as well as it worships me, wept and you left nothing to them! They deserve better than that! I cannot believe you'd turn your back on us so easily! And while wearing this hideous sack!"

She is so pretty when she looks like she wants to off me, Deuce thought. "Gods, I don't miss the whinning."

How rude!That's not Deuce even on his worse days, the mummy thought. Cleo put her hands on her hips and asked him slowly, "Why are you here now?"

"The ghouls dragged me here; to the last place I'd ever want to be." Deuce told her, looking her straight in the face.

Under the mascara, anger and bandages Cleo De Nile's heart was suffocating.

"Then leave." She said and turned around to not have to look at him. As always, he did what she said. Deuce stood up to walk out the door but stopped when he heard her ask,

"Could I at least know what I did?" The mummy asked, her voice was steady but cracking around the edges.

Don't buy into it, she's just hitting her own ego. "You didn't do anything, Cleo." He admitted.

She dropped her arms and looked at Deuce, who was looking at the wall. "Then why do you hate me? Why do you hate MH? Why aren't you being...you?"

"I don't hate you, I don't hate the school. I'm ... I'm dealing with my own stuff right now."

"My Ra this is so typical. We never talk."

"We talk like every day." This isn't what I should be saying right now, Deuce thought.

"No, I talk- you listen, and while that usually works for me it's not communication."

"Cleo, there are things I just don't want you to know."

"I want to know those things." The mummy said as she walked up to him. "And I always get what I want."

The dude smirked, but it didn't last. He walked up to Cleo and bent down to match his face with hers. She anticipated an embrace, an apology on his knees or at least a smooch. Deuce did none of these things; he studied Cleo's eyes and then whispered in her ear.

"Not this time, princess." He meant those to be final words.

Cleo loosened the bandages under her sleeves; with a long strand in both hands she grabbed the back of his neck to keep him close.

"Every time."

A peck goodbye he could allow to ease their breakup but Deuce could tell she was digging for more. He knew it was stupid but the former gorgon missed kissing the beguile ghoul. He kept Cleo's hands from reaching the back of his head. He knew she was looking for the russell of snakes- a feeling he missed too but would never give them again. But her lips were plump and tasted like strawberries and he still remembered how to play with them.

The mummy thought the resistance was a romantic build up. It was working for her until she parted her lips and didn't feel a sharp forked tongue cut against her mouth.

The blue eyed girl opened her eyes and parted from him. Before Deuce could speak she grabbed his tongue and pulled it out. It was a stout little tongue, and her Deucey's tongue was long enough to touch the peek of his nose. This tongue was round at the end and his was suppose to be forked, lean and fun.

In disgust Cleo let the tongue go and pushed the boy away from her. She then screamed in an Egyptian dialect no one but her family and very devoted scholars would understand. Past the door the ghouls+ Lilith were hiding next to, a small army of Cleo's servants rushed in.

Two of them grabbed Deuce's arm. They forced him on his knees while others held funny shaped spears to his head. With one of the spear, they pushed his hoodie down to reveal his brown hair.

Cleo's lip curled and demanded a dagger. After she received a jagged one, she walked up to the liar and asked him,

"Where is my boyfriend, imposter!?"

He could see the fear, and hate, boiling in her.

"He's gone. You are never going to see him again." Deuce promised the ghoul he'd never raise a hand against- even in his own defense.

"Then you may die!" Cleo said, raising the dagger and preparing her arm to apply the necessary force.

Frankie Stein jumped between Cleo's dagger and Deuce's jugular. The mummy hadn't broken skin, but Frankie's action pissed her off more.

"Get out of the way, Frankie!"

"Cleo! It is Deuce! The guy who's heart you're the queen of!"

"This is a very nearly convincing imitation but it cannot replace my man!" Cleo found it insulting Frankie would bud into her dating life.

"Just let her do it, I really don't care." The depressed Deuce told his overly hopeful friend.

"See! My Deuce would never act so pathetic and helpless! "

"He was turned into a Normie! Anyone would have an off-day after that!"

The disbelief in Cleo's eyes was obvious, even more so when she tried to thrust the dagger again. Frankie grabbed Cleo's wrist and while Frankie's wouldn't feel pain Cleo didn't want to slice off her friend's hand.

"Oh, tell me how that happened?" The princess asked drily.

Frankie usually took Cleo's attitude in strides, but with the extra condescension Frankie's bolts were sparking. "I-I- Ohh! Ask him!"

Cleo looked around Frankie's protective stand to ask the Normie, "Excuse me, clone-boy,would you care to add to the tall tale of how my gorgeously reptilian boy-toy became the sniveling waste of garage-sale I see before me?"

"He played a game and lost everything; his powers, his self-respect and the terrifying diva he cherished most of all." The divine intervention was a secret Deuce would rather take to his grave than reveal to his ghoul.

The mocha-tan ghoul lowered her dagger. Instead of a glare of hate, she gave the boy (still in her servants' grasps) a look of distain. "I don't believe you. If Deuce was losing a game he'd invent a way to win. Some call it 'cheating', I called it 'creative point scoring'. "

Everything is so simple to this spoiled brat, Clawdeen thought. Some days she loved having Cleo as her friend, and most days it was almost too much to handle. Lagoona was ashamed of Cleo's behavior then but deep down she empthized with how this was Cleo's verison of love. Lilith did not think that deeply, she instead was biting her nail as she saw Cleo hold a dagger so expertly.

Giving up on a friend was not something Frankie could let happen. The mint-green girl looked at the sad Deuce and asked him, "Is there anyway to restart 'the game'? Anyway to call for a rematch?"

"It's lose or lose big, ghouls. Doing nothing is better than making it worse." The miserable human explained, waiting for Cleo to slice his head off.

The Egyptian Princess narrowed her eyes and made a clicking sound with her lips. She shouted a command to her servants and they released Deuce.

"You're not the boy who broke Monster High's heart or mine. If you want to die, do it yourself." Cleo said as she walked past her friends and out of the vampa-theatre. Lilith saw the beautiful lips begin to tremble; the mummy needed someone to hold her as she cried. The huntress would get there before the line started.

"Got to give the ghoul credit; she knows how to motivate." Deuce said as he stood up and flexed his arms. There were sore spots from the grips of the golden servants.

Lagoona and Clawdeen walked up to Frankie. They were all in the stage's spotlight.

"Please don't tell me that was a turn-on for you." The werewolf asked, rolling her yellow eyes as he smirked.

"If I was some skeevy dude trying to manipulate her, than that's exactly how I'd want her to handle it." Deuce said as he took his gray hoodie off.

"I suppose I'd want the same if a copy-catfish of me tried to hook Gil. I doubt he'd lay a flipper on her, but me, well..." The blonde let her imagnation bobble, smiling with Deuce the same guilty little smirk.

"Wait, wait, wait! Deuce, what's happening now?" Frankie asked, her bolts sparking. "Are you going to try to make peace with the witch?"

"No, absolutely from the bottom of my true scaly soul never. I'm going to find an alternative." Deuce told her. He then asked for her iCoffin.

As the Normie searched through her contact list, Frankie wondered how amazing it was to call monsters from different demensions. The less selfish part tried to remember that saving her friends was more important than worrying about a long-distance charge on her cell-phone-bill.


	4. 4- Sandwich

"I never knew Cupid was your cousin!" Frankie said as the Vampa- theater mirror reflected the windy city of Fearcago.

"I never felt need to mention it and asked her not to." The human Deuce said, staring at the open dimension.

"Lot of secrets in you, Larry." Clawdeen said as the three ghouls walked after their human friend.

Lagoona, Frankie, Clawdeen and Deuce/Larry walked through the mirror in the drama department.

The floppy brown hair on his head blew in the wind. The grease from the hair follicles slid into Deuce's mundane eyes. "I have my reasons. "

Back at Monster High

Guilt needled Ghoulia as she walked past her third period class. She had done all the assigned homework, the extra credit and even wrote up the creature's itinerary. The zombie still felt it affected her straight A image badly by skipping.

The bespectacled ghoul nearly forgot about such worries as she watched her beast friend cry. Cleo was in front of a bathroom mirror as she let her tears drop to the sink. Ghoulia would've hugged her but the leopard-dressed Lilith invaded her space.

"There, there, Cleo, there are more bats in the cave." Lilith said, stroking at the Mummy's baby soft arms.

The huntress saw Ghoulia fold her arms in the mirror. Their met eyes but said nothing.

"I miss him." The wrapped ghoul said as she wiped away the wetness on her eye. "I wanted to see him again so badly I jumped on the first replica they picked off the streets. What would my ancestors say?!"

Lilith hugged into the ghoul's shoulder-short hair. "Oh Cleo, that big heart needs to be put in a safer place."

Cleo didn't hear or sense Lilith smelling her hair. Ghoulia's monotone, factual moan she did hear.

"Ghoulia is right, as usual." Cleo pushed Lilith aside so she could bend down into her purse. She pulled out a makeup-remover pad and a mascara brush. "My heartache can be contained for the good of the people. The real dilemma is what new big bad is lurking in Monster High this time?"

The princess handed Lilith the makeup-remover brush. The marttiini-carrying human girl knew Cleo was accustomed to being served; Cleo didn't know how much Lilith enjoyed the task compared to her other ghoulfriends.

"Making a normie-clone of a perfectly handsome monster is madness!" Cleo turned to Ghoulia with extra command in her eyes. "Gather the ghouls because this is a a serious emergency!"

Ghoulia took out her iCoffin but moaned her worry and concerns.

"Tell Bloodgood? Why in Ra's name would we waste our time? We have to find where they took Deuce! And find out what 'they' even are!"

In preparation to hunt monsters Lilith had learned Zombie; but she kept that to herself. "I don't what said, but Cleo, dear, I am a master tracker so you can count on me to do anything for you."

A snarky comment came out of Ghoulia after that. Lilith's smile froze as she acted like she didn't understand every word.

Cleo's lovely smirk was a good distraction. "Ghoulia, that's not very nice."

The three females were unaware of the ghostly presence that stalked them. They should know better; secrets are the tombstones to their graves and they turn me into the worst sort of graverobber, Spectra thought as she hovered in the bathroom corner. She phased through the wall as she typed 'The Big Warning' to her hundreds of ever-faithful blog-followers.

The post every monster read from the Ghostly Gossip was this: "Gorgon is first victim in the Normization process!"

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"Deuce? Well shoot me n my good eye! Good to see you, bro!" A sleek haired cyclopes said as he stood up from his desk.

The ghouls followed the plain-looking Deuce into a business building. The ride up the elevator took half a minute to go up sixty floors. Lagoona was surprised that the security and secretaries allowed them to walk through. Clawdeen asked about this and Deuce's explanation was the Cupid call was a connection to closer relative.

Deuce held out a hand to shake. "Nice seeing you again."

The suit-wearing monster stared at the hand then laughed. "Strangers shake hands, come here little brother." The T-Rolex-wearing monster gave a bone-crushing hug.

"I missed you too, Pal." The comment was almost sincere; Deuce had horrible envy for his brother's single hazel eye.

"Little dude, you started a harlem faster than I did." The cyclopse was slightly taller than his younger brother. His hair was a sandy blonde instead of the brown Deuce had, along with tanner skinner but the two young men shared the same chin.

The new information about Deuce was overloading Frankie. She wanted to cheer at how much family her first-ever-guy friend had. The mint-green ghoul did a small hop in small, and then chewed on her smile. Clawdeen watched her beastie hold in her questions; she smiled and nudged Frankie's arm.

Without his snakes to hiss for him, Deuce lightly slapped his brother's cheek. "Ladies, this is my brother who was tragically named Pal. Pal, meet Lagoona, Frankie and Clawdeen."

Lagoona and Frankie gave polite 'Hellos'. Clawdeen smiled and nodded, she was not too impressed with Pal's sense of humor.

"Yeah, I'm the lucky one. I bet Deuce never told you his full name." Pal said as he rubbed the normie's greasy head.

"No but we're working on that." Lagoona said. "For example, Deuce hasn't told us why we're here and how it will help...his situation."

Pal dropping the smiling; he looked closer at Deuce's head. "I just noticed what was different about you, baby bro."

Never the sharpest nail in the coffin, Deuce thought. "You know who-"

"Stop right there." Pal let go of the normal hair and leaned against his huge black desk. "Why do you have to be the rebel? It's so easy to just comply to his demands."

"Not really, bro."

"I did and look what he gave me! A great job, a sweet suite, a car that'll blow your mind! I'm living the dream, little-half-bro." Pal pressed a button on his chair; out from the side popped a cup holder. He tried to grin at Deuce's stiff bottom lip.

"Good for you, Pal, but I'm not about that life. I just need some help to undo the damage on me." Deuce said, hoping there was family he could count on.

Pal took out his deluxe iCoffin. "Are you sure a car ride can't change your mind? I could push back everything to do it right now."

"Maybe later, right now I need you to make some calls to some…'people' and help me fix this." Deuce pointed to his head.

The discomfort in Pal's wide figure was obvious. The twenty-something-year-old monster gave a cheesy grin to the teenagers as he put his iCoffin to his ear. "Cynthia, cancel my two o'clock, bring me my laptop and pick me up a latte, doll."

The charity of his single-eyed brother made Deuce feel better about his world. He believed a real manster would sacrifice for family and a better one would sacrifice for strangers. Deuce and Pal were more strangers than family and that made the unspecial boy feel especially lucky.

"Dude, I-"

Pal held up a hand to stop him. "No thanks, Gorgon, I've done nothing for you yet."

Clawdeen wanted to like Pal because he was Deuce's brother but she didn't trust his eye. The she-wolf wanted to help her friends but she couldn't judge what was best for the situation because Deuce was barely giving any real info out.

There was a knock on the door. Pal stood up from his desk to crack the door open, he stuck his ear to the crack but did not reveal what the monster on the other side looked like. Pal nodded his head then gave another corny grin to his guests.

"Excuse me, this won't take longer than a minute." Pal said, blinking at his normie half brother's sunglasses.

Though waiting was not what he wanted to do, Deuce said, "Take your time."

"Charmed meeting you ghouls." Pal said before leaving his door shut.

Deuce exhaled and ran this fingers through his hair. It agitated him that the hair was unresponsive. He put his hands in his pockets instead.

"Your brother seems….trim." Frankie threw out as she looked around his office. It was square and grey and very clean. The mint-green ghoul had never been in an office before so she assumed they all lacked spark and color.

The window view showed the borderline of different states Frankie found that incredible but it was still second to Deuce's uniquely different brother.

"Trim, yeah." Lagoona tried to assist. "A bit smug too, but the bloke seems to have done well for himself. What do you think he's going to do?"

"He's close to…this situation. He might be able to get in touch with people I can't contact directly." The human said as he stared at his reflection in the window.

Frankie wanted to say Deuce didn't need to be so ashamed of being a normie. She wished she could find the right words to get his attention to that fact.

"Deuce, can we expect you to tell us what's going on anytime soon?" Lagoona asked as she adjusted herself on the tough leather chair.

I do owe my friends the truth, Deuce thought. "It's for the best that you know as little as possible."

The werewolf was not happy with this answer. "If you don't trust us then why did we tag along?"

"Because you came anyway. You ghouls can take care of yourselves but I'm telling you now you can leave at anytime."

"We're not leaving." The black& white haired girl stated. After Frankie's words, Clawdeen heard a rumble in Pal's desk. She sniffed the air, but her nose picked up nothing that could be labeled peculiar for a monster's personal office.

"I know." Deuce stopped staring at what he thought was ugly and turned to what he knew was beautiful all around. "Thanks." He said to Frankie, Lagoona and the suspicious Clawdeen. Her eyes darted around the room with her nose wrinkling.

"Who is 'He-who-must-not-be-named'?" Clawdeen asked, she studied his eyebrows and mouth as he clenched up. She read his resistance well enough despite the distracting scent of mustard and pickles growing.

"Someone I really don't trust." Deuce didn't hear a faint rumble in the desk, but the pants-wearing ghoul did.

Clawdeen bared her fangs. "But you trust Pal? He seems more inclined to help the other guy than you." She walked closer to him, slightly crouching her shoulders.

"It's a long-shot but the dude is family. That should be at least in tie with his Pegasus-stallion of a car." Deuce explained as his thumb pointed to vehicle's photo on the desk.

The auburn-haired ghoul had pulled her hair back. It was flat on her head then bloomed in curls around her shoulders. From her pointed ears hung six gold earring; they jingled as she wiggled them for better reception.

"You're being a bit nosey, luv." Lagoona said to her furry friend.

Pushing the chair to the side, Clawdeen was near the strongest stench of onions, pickles and a sort of meat that smelled sour and unpleasant. I'm calling it now; Pal is not a friend, the fierce ghoul thought as she stared at the drawers in the desk.

"I smell something rotten." She heard rumbles in the drawer. Maybe a grunt? She asked herself as she pulled the drawer open. It had a very weak lock.

"Clawdeen-" Deuce considered stopping her but without his eyes he knew he was weaker than her pinky.

The mint-green girl stood up and was about to ask Clawdeen to stop but she stopped herself. Her bright blue friend stayed sitting but asked, "What did you find, luv?"

"A burger." The ghoul stared down at sesame seed bun. It sat still but her instincts didn't trust it.

Missing the tingles from feeding his little dudes, Deuce asked the ghouls; "I like the idea. Anyone else a little hungry?"

Clawdeen's eyes did not leave the burger. She felt urge to say 'I told you so', as the burger lifted its top bun to reveal two olives in its crevasse; two angry eyes glaring at her. It hissed, she growled back: it spit mustard towards her eyes.

She moved her head, faster than a normal doggie, and responded with a rougher growl. The burger spit a larger amount of mustard at her a second time, hitting the inside of her nose.

The whimpering werewolf rubbed at her nose as the others watched the burger climbed out the drawer with its bacon legs. They barely kept their eyes on the burger as it scurried under the chairs.

"What a rude little snack!" Frankie said as she walked up to Clawdeen. Her beastie was tearing up at the edges.

"This mustard! It's burning my nostrils!" She said as she tried to sniff and blow the stuff out.

"Should we catch it?" Lagoona wondered where they would go to replace Pal's lunch.

The sea creature watched Deuce raise his eyebrows and speak through his teeth." Lagoona, stay calm."

"Whatcha mean?" Her question was answered by a huff of onions and wheat bread. What she couldn't see, but the others had full views of, was a six-foot tall burger puffing like a bull.

Around the edges, mustard and ketchup dripped, past its toothpick tusks. There were pickles in the middle of it's olive eyes, inhales and exhaling almost like a snout.

The blonde sat still, her green eyes larger than normal against her flat nose. She heard ketchup drip into her seashell-decorated braid.

"It might be more scared of us than we are of it." Frankie suggested.

The burger squealed at Lagoona's head, saucing her hair like it was spaghetti. The webbed ghoul slid off her chair, under the desk and stood beside Frankie and Clawdeen.

"Ideas are welcomed, gils." She saw the burger's front bacon-legs scratch the floor; ready to pounce.

Clawdeen spit on Pal's desk. "I got this."

As the burger pounced, Clawdeen slid her rear on the table, spinning her thighs to reach her pumps to kick in the burger's left tusk.

The ghouls watched this before Deuce grabbed their arms and pulled them towards the window. The three kept their backs to the glass as they watched Clawdeen's claws tear at the bread.

"We should help!" Frankie said when they hit the wall of the other side of the office.

"The sandwich picked the fight, I feel no pity for it." Deuce told his well-intentioned friend.

"Yobbo with fries? No thank you." Lagoona said as she tried to ring the ketchup and oils from her hair.

Frankie was about to tell her fin-friend she looked very cute with pink highlights when Deuce's shouted 'No!' interrupted her words.

Fear, guilt and shame went into his stomach like sunken rocks as he watched Clawdeen's legs get swallowed by the burger. Fear that the sandwich would go after the rest of them, guilt that the world lost such a brave ghoul and shame that he was only a human. A helpless, useless human he thought.

The snorts from the burger came out like victorious chuckles. On its behind, there was a curl of lettuce not unlike a tail. Frankie noticed this before the creature turned around and sniffed in the direction from where she knew her Scar perfume (that she got from Scaris) attracted its attention. The three teens watched it ready to charge them; they then saw it vibrate. It shook uncontrollably and squealed in agony. The bacon legs could not keep it stand. The squeals grew sharper, more painful to hear.

Lagoona had her webbed hands on her fins as she watched the creature drag itself on the floor. It was as if there was a itch it could not scratch. She noticed around its 'face' there were bulges coming from the inside; frequent and repeating like punches.

Five byzantium-painted claws pushed through the what-bread-face. A rip from that poke expanded until it was wide enough for Clawdeen to pus her head out. In her fangs hung slabs of meat.

The burger stopped moving as Clawdeen walked out of her soggy, pickle-wreaking vore-prison.

She dropped the meat on the floor and walked up to her friends. They saw her cold, distant eyes grow warmer with familiarity. She huffed and puffed then asked Frankie, "Can I borrow your mirror?"

The ghoul blinked then dug into her side jacket pocket. She handed the pentagon shaped compact-mirror to her sauce dripping smelling friend.

Clawdeen grimaced as she saw her reflection. "In the name of the moon, I will punish those who do this to my hair!"


	5. Dude

The ghouls tried wiping the condiments off the werewolf. With his index finger, Deuce wiped the sauce off of Clawdeen's onion-sweet face. He tasted the drip. "Caledonian boar. Cliché."The human boy stated. "Too much chipotle."

The werewolf rolled her yellow eyes. "Yeah, ninety-nine problems with that sandwich and chipotle wasn't one of them."

Deuce took Frankie's phone from his pocket and searched for a taxi service. "You ghouls can catch a flight back home. I'm going to find my big bro and give him a big hug around his neck."

"No more of your stupid plans. I'm staying so I can serve Pal's lunch to him. Down his throat." Clawdeen sat on the desk as Lagoona and Frankie finished wiping her dry.

"Things just got serious-"Deuce said as he saw the phone's battery-skull burn red.

"They already were." Frankie reminded him as she collects the lettuce scraps in a neat pile. They sat on Pal's desk in an octagon shaped pile.

"Okay then, this is the edge of disaster. You three can still leave before he-"

"He who? Pal or your dad?" Lagoona watched the flinch in Deuce's eyebrows.

Clawdeen hadn't guessed that wild of an idea. The bolts on Frankie sputtered sparks as she checked everyone's face.

"What gave it away?" The human boy asked as he put the phone in his pocket.

"I can't think of anyone else you could hate and fear at the same time like this, mate." The amphibian told him.

Deuce cracked his knuckles in his jean pockets. "I am not afraid of him, but he is a dangerous dude. I liked having you ghouls around for moral support but we are not safe in his tool's playhouse."

"So we should leave." Frankie nodded.

The iCoffin with the crescent moon charm would not turn on for Clawdeen, nor would Lagoona's water-proof iCoffin. The monsters and human became sucicpious of more than just the sandwich.

Deuce tried the handle to the door. It was locked. It took three kicks before Deuce's foot opened the door.

The pink horned secretary was not at her desk. The werewolf listened for other monsters but her hypersensitive ears heard zero movement in the room. The rest of the entire floor was silent and so were the floors above and below them.

Lagoona looked over her shoulder, back into Pal's office. There were raindrops against the window, a heavy rain it looked like. She wondered when that had crept up so silently.

"Funny, I didn't hear the rain come." Lagoona stated, absolutely suspicious of the building from the outside and inside.

The four walked past the waiting hall. Clawdeen pressed the elevator door. It beeped on after one click. The doors opened without music. The she-wolf stayed on alert; Deuce was the expert in this mad-science gone wrong matter but she was the strongest of them all. She had to protect them.

"We could look for stairs." Frankie suggested.

"We could, but I'd rather we stay on equal foot and peas-in-a-pod close." The werewolf said as she sniffed the elevator.

It didn't smell evil. The four walked into the elevator, each pair of eyes on the corners and darting from the numbers changing floors. Deuce chewed on the 'equal-foot' phrase Clawdeen used. Frankie is indestructible, Clawdeen is tougher than titanium and Lagoona is quick enough to save herself and then sum. I'm the dude dragging them done. I wanted their support; I hate needing their protection. If I was a monster again, I'd be able to cover them. Dude!

Frankie pushed aside her polite demeanor to ask the pushy but appropriate question: "Deuce, what happened with your dad?"

"He made an offer and I refused. This was his response." The human stroked his mundanely human head.

"And sic'ing Pal on us?" Clawdeen asked as her ear pick up a tiny rustle as they slow down to the fifth floor.

"His new offer." The shade-wearing normie stated as the elevator doors opened to the forty-fourth floor.

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On Mt Olympus two brothers talked over drinks whilst they sat in a perfectly temperature pool.

Zeus picked his teeth with the umbrella toothpick Bacchus gave him. "Po-po, my bro-bro, try this nectar."

"No. I need a clear head and your help if we're going to get through to my boy." The Sea God said as he looked at his iCoffin Supreme. On it's wide screen he swiped back and forth between the live feed of Deuce& the ghouls and the gloomy students of Monster High.

"I took away the kid's super powers and self-respect. If he still hasn't come yet then he may not be worth our time." Zeus said as he watched his drink refill of nectar from the thin air of the clouds.

Poseidon shook his salty beard. "My son is very stubborn but we can ebb that down. His strength was the wrong bait. We need to go after what really harpoons this soul."

The Lighting King chuckled. "Oh yeah, like you tried last spring. Tried flooding the high school to drown him out and ha! That sure didn't work."

Poseidon: "The boy pushed me away with 'Power of Friendship'. Blah. I went too killer whale on attacking that blubber daycare. I should've gone more angular fish on his rotten ass."

In the mood to play, Zeus gave another suggestion. "The boy's got a ladyfriend right?"

"We are unable to touch that fanfin devilfish!" Poseidon's anger made the pool water boil.

"Okay, not the wife but a good looking boy like that should have a mistress or two." Zeus said as he chilled the waters.

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The rumor of a mad scientist hunting monsters spread through the school between the cracks and in every single ear. The grapevine said that the monsters were in danger of losing their reasons to live. A force unseen was more terrifying than most realized. The common opinion was to hunt the hunter before they attacked but no one knew where to start and the panic had everyone running over their tales.

Headmistress Bloodgood's response to handle the problem was slow. She rode through the school on her mare demanding diligence from her scared pupils.

"The Council of Elders is analyzing the situation. But be aware that there is no threat against us and nothing your school system cannot correct in its appropriate time." The disembodied head told the onlookers as the neck sat in the loose tendons atop her shoulders.

This proclamation was scoffed at in the Monster High dorms. Every student feared the worst and showed varying degrees of cowardice and bravery.

In the Monster High dorm students were either packing to leave or stocking up to never leave their rooms. One stone cold, fair-hearted ghoul stood proudly even with extraordinary fear in her heart.

Rochelle Goyle was the Head Safety Monitor and she was very good at her job. Following Bloodgood's command, the diligent gargoyle was at every student's dormroom door to recite the Headmistress' orders for order.

"Spectra Vondergheist can spin a story faster than a spider can spin web."

"Hi Rochelle." A six-armed ghoul said as she carried the fainted Buzz Wingman.

"Tiens, Wydownna." The pink-haired ghoul said to her friend before returning her attention to the trumpet-playing satyr. "You need not worry, the school is not in danger."

"Deuce Gorgon is not amongst the undead anymore! How does Bloodgood explain that?!" The satyr asked Rochelle, spitting a bit on her badge.

Rochelle's inhale was discreet as she said, "He is on vacation. We are looking into the matter and-"

The satyr was disgusted with her covering up a crime. He shut the door on her face. Rochelle felt disrespected but stayed sturdy as she walked away. She walked back to her dorm, she opened the door and didn't turn on the light.

She didn't cry over the Gorgon's disappearance. The razor-clawed ghoul felt sick and frightened but she stayed solid. Typically Roux would run to her when she returned home. Rochelle was about to call his name before she heard a moan on his bed.

On Rochelle's bed laid a Caucasian young man with his back to her. His scalp sparkled green scales and she heard hissing from the same direction. On her five-inch wedges she scooted to his side.

"Deuce?" Rochelle's heart thudded as she put her hand on his arm. His fleshy muscles are so soft but impressive for a monster not made of stone.

The gorgon turned over onto his back. the snake-boy smiled when he saw her. "Rochelle. I've missed you so much."

Rochelle blushed a darker shade of granite but stayed focus finding his ailment. He seemed to have been holding his other arm which looked very brusied.

"Deuce! You've been attacked!" The gargoyle remembered where she put her first-aid kit. She was about to kneal down to grab it when Deuce put his hand under her chin.

"It's just a bruise, I'm fine." He raised his arm to show a purplish coloring and an elbow that could still bend and flex. "See? Don't I look fine?"

There was another bruise under his sunglasses. And over his smile which melted Rochelle's heart like chocolate in a croissant.

I am not a stupid pastry, she thought and said: "Everyone has been worried sick! We've been thinking the worst! And searching all over!"

The handsome boy didn't seem very concerned with her words. He looked amused and dreamy at her. "I didn't want to be found but I had to come back. To my girl."

The responsible ghoul felt embarrassment when she realized who Deuce probably meant. She was about to explain where he could find the Mummy when the gorgon removed his shades. His eyes were stunning; Rochelle knew she should look away but he was letting her stare into them. He was staring at her as if he thought her bubble-gum pink eyes were just as glorious.

"Ils sont magnifiques. But we should tell the school." The winged ghoul said as Deuce put his hands on her back.

"The others will be happy to see you're alright." She reminded him as he pulled her on the bed, and on top of him.

The gorgon gently stroked his thumb on her carefully crafted lips. "Are you happy to see me?"

Rochelle didn't lie. "Yes. I think so."

"I am the happiest monster in the world to see you." He said as his hands went down from her lips and wings to unclench the button of her plaid skirt.

If she were honest with herself, Rochelle would've ripped off her own blouse but she owed honesty to others monsters. "Deuce, what about-"

"My heart, I'll tell the others I'm back after." The gorgon sat up to unbuckle his belt.

"After?" Rochelle asked, watching the black jeans slide off.

"After."

"The Gargoyle Code of Ethics: rule 34# states that a gargoyle must keep her head clear when…." Rochelle lost her train of thought as her claws made their way under his frail red shirt.

"I love your ethics; hearing you say them is the sweetest, most prolific music on earth." Deuce whispered as he felt her frilly undergarments tear with one tug.

"C'est la vie." Rochelle said as she pulled the gorgon down. His lips were the softest she'd ever kissed and his body was more clever in sensation than she knew before.

"Oh baby, I love it when you speak random French."

"Les rêves deviennent réalité!"

"You are exquisite, my princess!"

Rochelle stopped scratching his pectoral muscles. She ripped his shirt open and put her claws on his face. The gargoyle always adored staring into his green eyes.

Except the eyes she fell in love with were kind and sunny. The eyes staring at her then were stormy and malicious.

"Whom are you really thinking about? Right this second?" Rochelle asked in pants.

"You, my love." Deuce blinked as he caught his breath.

It hit Rochelle that this was all too good to be true. Having such an afternoon was a lie. "Deuce, what do you call your male friends?"

"Bro, brother, brah, chum, buddy, wingman, pal, comrades, people you don't expect money back from?" The green-eyed boy answered patiently, with agitation in his tone.

Wrong answer, Rochelle's eyebrows narrowed. "What rhymes with 'crude'?"

"Lewd, brood, food, mood, nude. I like nude most." He said as his hand made way to her beautiful lips. His fingers were slapped away by her stone-cold hand.

Rochelle rolled her legs up from under the boy. She placed the flats of her feet on his chest then, using her skullimate-trained-thighs, kicked the wind out of the imposter.

"Angel, what is the matter with you?" The boy yelled from the floor. He rubbed his bruised abbs.

"À la fin, you're not Deuce!" The gargoyle said, bursting her wings open wide.

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The Gorgon home was dreary and deserted. Three young women walked past the stone statues to the locked door. The blonde in the leopard print kneeled down with her lock-picking kit.

As the huntresses toiled, she heard the cheeky zombie moan.

"Yes Ghoulia, I regret letting the clone get away before we could question where he came from." The mummy told her dearest blue friend.

If Ghoulia's zombie was translated, her next statement would be; "Frankie said they picked him up from New Salem High."

"Is that what Frankie said? Hmph. The loser wouldn't do for Monster High. No offense, Lilith." Cleo said to her handy human friend.

The three heard a latch click. Lilith opened the door and allowed Cleo to enter first."None taken. For the record I filed to transfer here but the principal from my school lost the papers and refused to acknowledge them. My lawyer was incompetent and turned up nothing but excuses from the school board."

"Hmm. Pity. We should call Frankie to see if she's with the clone." Ghoulia suggested, cutting into Lilith's monologue.

"She has to let her hand crawl into everything." Cleo walked into the Gorgon's living room. It was a spotless white home with family pictures on each wall.

Lilith had learned Medusa to be the most famous of all female monsters for her savagery. The Normie stared at Medusa's photo with her small son in a park. The pictures varied from Medusa at different time periods (from long robes, flapper skirts bell-bottom-pants), Deuce at different ages to different reptilian family members sharing frame space.

Ghoulia hit the button to call her exuberant friend. She heard a robot say the number was disconnected. The zombie had a sense something had happened; she tried to rationalize it by checking from a reliably active line.

"Hi Ghoulia." Draculaura answered sweetly.

"Hi, DQ. Is Frankie near you?"

"No, she, Clawdeen and Lagoona went to Fearchago to help Deuce with his problems." The vampire stated as a matter of common fact.

"What? When did that happen?!"

"Maybe an hour ago. I'm just totes relieved that Spectra's 'Normization' crisis isn't real."

"Uhhh." The zombie moaned while adjusting her glasses.

"Wait, why are you pausing? You think it's true! Did the bad guy capture our ghoulfriends and force Clawdeen to tell me she was safe and that I didn't have to worry?"

That could be highly possible since we have no idea what's really going on, Ghoulia thought. "Please don't freak out-"

The vampire began sobbing.

"Draculaura, I do not know if that is what's really going on! But it would be pertinent if you, and some taller monsters, went after them. Did Clawdeen tell you exactly where in Fearchago they're in? "

The vampire sniffled. "No, she didn't! But Clawd can find her! Oh! We'll go rescue them! I'll put on my rescue shoes! What's Cleo doing in all this?"

There was a regular comfort in being Cleo's secretary when teasing was part of the report. "Pretending not to care when she's worried to her bones."

"Ghoulia, stop tarnishing my good name and come over here!" Cleo demanded.

"Please go after them, I'll hold the fort here." Ghoulia said, wishing with all of her heart for their safe return.

"Kay, big smooches."

Ghoulia hung up the phone and asked the proud ghouls. "What are you guys doing?"

Cleo turned her face from the Groancoming photo of herself and Deuce. She felt Lilith stroke her shoulders but they didn't ease the sadness under her wraps.

"Just wishing to relive the past." The nearly six thousand year old ghoul said for the first time without irony.

In her unbeating heart, Ghoulia was filled with woe. "We'll find him, Cleo."

"While you were chatting with little miss pigtails, Cleo had the brilliant idea to use her magic items to search for the monsters in question." Lilith told the nerdy roadblock who stood in her trail to Cleo's Love Land.

"But we already tried using idols to find Deuce. We left a diamond spinning on a string because it couldn't match Deuce's scale sample."

The ancient ghoul pulled out from her purse the very same diamond Ghoulia was speaking about.

"You had scales from Deuce?" Lilith asked as she removed the stone flowers from the center of the Gorgon's coffee table. There were three couches around the table; the empty wall left a nice view of the television.

"It took some digging but the servants found a few buried in my laundry." Cleo explained as Ghoulia laid out a map of the world.

"Gross. Not on your end, Cleo, on the flake's flakes." Lilith said, grimacing at the pool photo that sat on near the eastern couch's lamp table. It was of the scaly boy with his arm around her fine bikini cladded princess.

Cleo sighed. "When the snakes became desert dry, I'd lotion his head until they felt better. He loved the high quality of my family's ancient supply. I loved how he showed his appreciation."

"Yeah, great, too bad we can't find Deuce the magic way. Have you ghouls found out who saw him last?"

Cleo's face continued to frown. "We've already done that. I was the last person to receive a message from him. None of the boys received word from him and I was- am- his number one ghoul."

"But you're not the last woman he'd check in on." Ghoulia remembered another woman monster Deuce had to answer to.

Lilith realized whom exactly the blue know-it-all meant when she looked at the Cheese-Theme Park photo of the snake-haired lady in the Swiss-cheese sun hat.


	6. Baked

In a classic hero tale, the villain will kidnap the princess to engage a battle with his foe all to win the princess's love. The Sea God took on the ludicrous title as villain as he thought it was what was best for his son. The boy had a princess but she did not fit into his whirlpool vision of desirable. A true princess was fair, honorable and ingénue in manners. It was a pity Poseidon's son did not share this preference in royalty.

The absent father was educated about his son well enough to know his principals. Poseidon knew if a creature the boy knew, platonically or not well at all, then he could pull the eel from his hole. The master of the seas wanted to grab his son's attention in an epic gesture. The epic gesture did not goes as he planned.

Poseidon awoke with thorns in his wrists. He sat in a chair with vines tangling him down. The mighty god's vision was through tinted glasses and blocked slightly by a throbbing headache.

In his sights were three young monstrous women. One was shiny and bronze colored; she clicked like a toy of Athena. The second was a bright green and pink girl with mannish garments; she had eyes as blue as the deep Pacific. The last and most lovely was Rochelle; the gentle gargoyle Poseidon had taken a shine to when he discovered the accountable ghoul was suitable for his son's affection. She disappointed him a bit with her brutal attack on 'his' face. She was not without reason but the pounding Poseidon found to be unladylike.

The vine's tip was slowly scratching the tip of his neck. Poseidon could raise his head to look at his captors. He could easily tell they didn't enjoy his appearance.

"We know you're not the real Deuce Gorgon." The green ghoul with pretty blue eyes said.

He sat in the teenager's body, squeezed by vines. Poseidon said nothing.

The robot stood in between her two friends; she had a firm but kinder tone. "If you tell us the truth we'll be nice"

The show of bravery and intimidation amused Poseidon the way dolphins swam backwards on their tales. "What you girls want is to be nice to me. Release me and I won't drown you."

A block of stone slaps his face. The quaint Rochelle curses in French then says in English: "I do not tolerate threats"

The ghouls watch 'Deuce' smile in a superior sort of way. "You crabs asked for this."

The sea god imagined the room filling with the water from the building's pipes. Seconds passed after he willed the act. It did not happen. Poseidon willed the water with all his brain and nothing budged.

The vines twisted harder. Poseidon could sense the water in their veins but it was resisting him.

Poseidon felt bruising on his cheek and ego. "By the reigns of Apollo! What is this about!"

The robot extended her arm. At the elbow the forearm slide out of socket on hinges molded in her copper skin. A bit of steam puffs out and twirling gears are heard. The hand is recited into wrist. A clog on a handle comes out, spinning at a dangerously fast pace.

"What was that about crabs, mister?" The mechanical girl asked.

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Salt in the wounds was worst in literal experience. Poseidon had been in wars and battles and suffered far worse than the torture the ghouls put against him. He hurt but stayed silent with the exception of a hissed whines. The robot sliced open long, deep cuts against his forearms. The salt and lemonade they lathered him with was tolerable. The ever-growing vines from the plant monster branching into his muscles were excruciating splinters.

What cut Poseidon deepest was the humiliation. These were children interrogating him, the God of the Seas, and while wearing mini-skirts! They should not be able to deny him! Much less hurt him as if he were a mere mortal!

As his head throbbed, Poseidon lost sight of the ghouls and their dormroom of torture. The God-in-faux-gorgon-form found himself alone in darkness. He watched sweat, blood and lemon juice drip off the white muscles. There was an eerie buzzing noise and then a light-hearted chuckle.

Through the sunglasses he wore, Poseidon saw two long legs walk towards him. They led to wide hips and Poseidon realized they were the same hips all his troubles started from.

Medusa held up a glass that contained a bright pink worm in it. "Hello, Deuce. Or should I say Poseidon-the-desperate-Zeus-wanna-be? "

"Woman! What have you done to me?" The god in the monstrous-teenager's body demanded from the projected illusion.

"'Not I.' said the one-that-got-away." The gorgon's grin was intoxicated with catty victory.

A grey-haired-&-skinned man came into Poseidon's view. "Hello, brother."

"Hades! Brother, this is the lowest tide of betrayal!" The snakes on Poseidon's head were motionless props that swayed weakly as he stretched his neck better to yell at the illusions. "Why would you do this to me?"

Hades clinked his skull-shape glass with Medusa's. "She visits me during Cryptmas, you send a dead goldfish which is an insult to my profession."

The God of the Sea took in all this like he would fresh fugu. "Insult to your- you're bedding my former love!"

Medusa chewed on the toothpick form her drink. "Oh don't get mushy on us, buster. You had this coming."

"I am trying to salvage what is left of my son-" The Death God's brother said before Medusa's red serpents hissed him quiet.

"No, you hurt my son for not bending to your waves. Now Deuce is old enough to get himself out of his own trouble, so I don't care what you try to pull on the boy. I stepped in because by getting in the way of Cleuce I am going to serve cold justice on your whale tail!" The monster said this while putting a hand on Hades' shoulder.

"Cleuce?" The King of the Underworld asked.

"It's the combination of my boy's name and his pretty little ghoulfriend's name." Medusa said cheerfully.

Posideon's disguise tongue stuck out in disgust. "Oh do not tell me you ship our boy with that crusty old hagfish!"

Maddy's snakes hissed as she grinned with satisfaction. "You're just bitter that her gods kicked your tailfin last Spring."

"You push that poison on our son to spite me!" Never had he wished to drown the Underworld so mercilessly before.

"That is a bonus. I ship them because having Cleo in the family guarantees no ugly grandchildren. Also, I like her. She's assertive, elegant and absolutely has Deuce twirled around her finger. *sigh* All boys marry their mothers." Maddy says dreamily.

The veins in Hades' 'nephew' swelled. "I will see you both in hell!"

Poseidon is slapped with a stone block a second time. He reopens his eyes to see the three ghouls again.

Rochelle puts her claws on the male-prisoner's forearms. The gargoyle does not hold back her strength or hatred. "Tell us where Deuce Gorgon really is."

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The real Deuce Gorgon, human and hating every second of it, was with Lagoona Blue, Frankie Stein and Clawdeen Wolf. The four were trapped in an office building. This was definite to them by the evidence of unbreakable windows and doors that opened to the same room the monsters stood in every time. They were having a hard time escaping the egg-shell colored fortress.

"Cubicles as far as the eye can see." Lagoona stated as the four entered a new floor of the office. The sea creature couldn't see much because the most of the ceiling lights were off. The cubicles they could see looked neatly abandoned. The smell of coffee and ink was still fresh; as if the building emptied for a dragon-fire-drill.

"Why don't we just walk along the edges?" Clawdeen suggested as she put a claw into the foam barriers.

The barriers reacted by expanding upward until they hit the florentine light fixtures.

"That's why." Deuce said.

The werewolf didn't smell anything evil or mean-spirited. Yet. "Any better ideas than walking through the cubicles?"

Frankie shook her head. The ghouls and normie stayed in a close diamond. Clawdeen in front, Deuce and Frankie behind her and Lagoona at the stern.

"So, what was a weak at the Normie High school like?" Frankie asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"I don't know, the desks were comfortable." He said; all high schools are dull, MH is no exception, I sat in there missing my friends.

"I wonder if this is a real place monsters work at." Lagoona wondered out loud as she looked at the small calendars with schedules and knick knacks in the openings of the square workspaces.

"Doofus Brother Evil incorporated? I'm sure one of my brothers tried interning a place like this once." Clawdeen said, keeping track of how many were in the pack.

"Clawerence, right?" Deuce threw out, remembering Clawd's tug of war with his older bros. Werewolf jaws, dude.

The she-wolf began walking backwards on her five-inch-heels. "No, he went into engineering. I think it was Clawith."

Frankie had her listening face on, Deuce had his brooding face on and Lagoona….where is that little mergirl at? Clawdeen thought as she stopped.

The three walked back a yard to find Lagoona sitting. She was in one of the only lit cubicles in the building. "Sweetie! What's wrong?" Clawdeen asked as she examined Lagoona's fins and hair.

In her webbed fingers was a fichus. The petals were white and it reminded Frankie of a star. There was a small stream of smoke coming from the plant's edges.

"I'm good, mate." The freckled ghoul said in a wispy voice. "I'm just vegging out."

"Um, Lagoona, in a dangerous office space where the lunches can eat us isn't the best place for a nap. Sorry." Frankie said, trying to be as nice as she could about pulling her friend's arm.

The stitched girl tugged a bit but Lagoona sat firm as an oyster. Frankie's fretting showed by lacing her fingers together. She took a breath to calm herself and inhaled an earthy aroma of goodness.

"This smells like car oil, sesame-seed oil and pepper to me." The skunk-haired ghoul said as she bent her knees to the floor.

"I smell laundry, cheap perfume and bad eggs." Clawdeen stated as she rested against the filing cabinet.

"You're all out of it." Deuce said, letting his sunglasses drop to the floor. "It's old linen, a dirty beach and bitterness."

The teens felt like they were flying kites. Or the kites were flying them high into the storm-clouds.

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Outside of the building the ghouls+ Deuce were trapped in were their friends. Still wearing the Mourning Uniforms, a group of teens stood in front of a closed building. Clawd was the alpha of the group and insisted they follow his heart.

"Clawdeen's last message said they went here. We may as well go in." The pink-pigtailed vampire told her friends.

"We may as well." Clawd agreed obediently. The wolfman jimmied the handle. He pulled the handle off the door. Clawd shrugged and gave a puppy soft grin.

"It seems like they don't want visitors." Draculaura stated in a burnt tone.

Her much taller friend Abbey stepped up to take the werewolf's place.

"We show them they wrong. " The yeti said lifting her boot.

The stomp left a dent but not an entrance. Abbey continued to stomp while the others watched.

"It's hypnotizing after a while." Clawd put a hand on Draculuara's shoulder. The top of her parasol was closer but not as soft as her silky black pigtails.

"I think there might be a faster way to do this." Invisibilly stood next to the flame element with the dopey grin.

"That's not what you were thinking." Scarah stated as she stood on the other side of Heath.

"Not now, Screams." The beanie-wearing boy told his ex-girlfriend.

The raven-haired ghoul crossed her arms. "You were thinking about Gigi's scorpion tattoo and how nice it is she always shows it off."

The genie's blush was rosy against her pink skin. "We should try another way to get in." She said.

"Like a wish?" Invisibilly suggested, hearing the sour green ghoul scoff.

"I've given up my powers."

Scarah scoffed. "You gave up unlimited cosmic powers why? It could've really helped us here."

"That is just why! Everyone asks! I can't please everyone! I need a lamp to structure where the random, lucky Finder should be! This lampless existence is too much for me!"

Hearing her butter soft voice rise lowered Scarah's jealousy. The fair skinned ghoul patted Gigi's bare shoulders. "We'll find another way, dear."

Gigi's sad blue eyes met with Scarah's blank yet kind eyes. The tension went sour again when the transparent one put his hand on Gigi's other shoulder.

"Yeah, we'll put our heads together, Gigi."

Heath wasn't concerned when Scarah and her ex began a mean spirited game of patty-cake. Nor did the normieization threat scare him any more than his friends' missing whereabouts. He watched Abbey's iron strong thighs kicking into the door. The world could freeze over into another ice age and Heath felt like a red-hot lucky rabbit's foot.


	7. Guest

Waking up against big, fluffy pillows with a bed underneath wasn't the weirdest fate a dude could have. Under the hisses of his snakes, Deuce heard a party. He heard feet thumping involved and lots of laughter. The Gorgon lazily stretched. Under his sunglasses Deuce saw he wasn't alone.

"Finally awake I see." Cleo DeNile says as she slinks into the pillow nest.

She puts her head on Deuce's chest. The snakes stick their tongues at her forehead. "How's it going downstairs?"

"Dull. You always make it more fun." His ghoulfriend says in a yawn. Her warm embrace and rich blue eyes said she wasn't tired. Her eyes were a bright shade of blue and full of secrets.

Deuce went into get a kiss but met with her palm. "You're in a time-out for lying to royalty."

Cleo was upfront about most of everything. If she wanted something she let you know and she'd do it with volume and little misinterpretation. Other monsters misinterpreted that attitude as bossy- the Gorgon found it refreshingly honest. Deuce didn't think he was especially patient or generous when dating the dynastic beauty, as some ghouls and dudes implied to him. He saw himself fortunate to be (almost) equal with Cleo. She was cool with what wasn't cool about him and it made Deuce happy neither of them was getting bored.

Being with Cleo went from timeless, worry-free paradise to hell in a hand basket in a blink. "Babe, I can explain-"

"You told me I'd never see my boyfriend again! You get yourself into trouble with your God-Daddy and don't think to ask for help from your divinely powerful girlfriend!" Cleo says as she pokes his sunglasses.

"I thought keeping everything to myself kept it away from you. I also recently discovered I'm a moron."

The mummy's face drops. "You tell me nothing about your life. It hurts to realize you just don't want me in your world."

"Cleo, you're the center." He says as he rubs the diamond on her cheek. "You're the most awesome woman undead on this planet, which is why I couldn't let you have a normie on your arm."

She narrowed her proud eyes. "You don't think I'm monster enough to carry both of us?"

All it takes is to stripped free of bandages and you turn to dust, Deuce thought as he encircled her size-two frame in his arms.

"You don't need to. I'm here and I'm not leaving. MH or you."

Deuce's puckered lips met with a slap. The Mummy's hands were soft flesh with heavy rings for bruising. Deuce woke up to the beach-like smell of surf, soy sauce and coconut monster-izer.

"Be a friend. Let me die again and go back to where I was." He asked Lagoona as her webbed hand brush his ratty hair from his face.

"We didn't die, we went over-the-falls because I was drawn to a nasty little water lily that zoinked us out." The amphibian sounded sturdier than normal. Her relaxed voice tone bumped down when taking on responsibilities.

On the floor, outside of the smoky cubicle Frankie and Clawdeen stood wobbly.

"I could use a snack to munch on." Clawdeen's fangs protruded farther than her lips.

The mint-green-around-the-gils Frankie giggled. "Anyone else have, like, really cool dreams? Cause I had some of the best, weirdest, voltageous dreams ever yet!"

The foggy colors of the scene were, Deuce realized, the effects of the broken lights above. The burn in his eyes was absent. It did not ease the blistering headache gushing open in his mind.

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At the Gorgon Home

The idols of the Pharaoh were handy ranging from cutting lines in creepaterias to plucking Gorgons from different sections of the globe.

Neither Deuce nor Maddy responded to the power of the idols, causing Cleo DeNile immense aggravation. Picking at sand in the desert, the princess chose to call on the last Gorgon she knew.

With a proper incantation the living room glowed bright pink. From thin air appeared Hauntlywood's most promising new make-up artist.

The scaly woman's eyes darted around the room. From the photos she guessed her aunt Medusa had something dire to tell her. Viperine saw not her aunt but instead two ghouls and a normie.

"Umm…. Diga?" Viperine said uncertainly.

"Viperine, we need to talk to you about Deuce and Maddy disappearing from the face of the earth." Cleo stated, not noticing she was unrecognized by Viperine.

From under her bleach-blonde wig, nine pink serpents poked out. "They do that sometimes, I wouldn't worry about it."

"We are worried because we can't get in touch with them." Lilith explained, though if in my power I'd keep the green bastard as far away from Cleo as possible.

No reason to panic her if this is all a misunderstanding, Ghoulia asked, "Where do they usually disappear to?"

"Well," She stepped off the table to sit next to Ghoulia on the white couch. "When Deuce's father is around he usually takes them off it to have a talk about something or other, so- "

"Deuce's father?" Ghoulia and Cleo asked in the same tone of persons who've sat Frankie Stein's electric bed.

Lilith folded her track-boot over her knee. "Why would he be from out of this world?"

"Oh, my cousin never told you his father is Posiedon?" The paisley-loving ghoul asked her cousin's friends.

Ghoulia shakes her head slowly. Cleo blinks and becomes a still as the Sphinx. Her big-game-hunting friend rigidly asks, "Say what?"

"Poseidon, the brother of Hades and Zeus and owner of 75% of the planet's surface?" The zombie states for hunter and asks of Viperine.

The venomous ghoul adjusts her transparently pink shades. "Oh, so you have heard of him."

"Um, not as Deuce's dad." Ghoulia quickly states, hoping not to appear too slow.

"Huh, I wouldn't think he'd keep that to himself. I mean I know they aren't close but you'd think it'd come up at some time." Viperine says this as if she's repeating weather facts in front of an open window.

"AHHH!"

Lilith's nerves jitter as she puts reassuring hands on the sides of Cleo's face. "Cleo, are you alright?"

The gold-wrapped ghoul shines a spooktacular smile. "This makes perfect sense! I knew my true love couldn't have been an average monster! Oh yes yes yes yes yes! My father can finally unbunch his bandages about me ending up with non-royalty! I'm dating a demi-god!"

Cleo bounced while Lilith wanted to stick a poison dart through her monocle.

A singular snake hissed disapprovingly from Viperine. "Well, not technically a demi-god. Deuce inherited his powers from tia Medusa yes but he refused gifts from his father."

"Why would he moronically do that?" The girl who skinned mountain lions for sport asked.

"My cousin didn't like the idea of living on Olympus and that was where Poseidon kept his better presents. Actually, beside an occasional visit, Deuce says nothing to his father."

Lilith raised her hands like a crossing guard. "Wait a trophy, the guy refused ultimate power? Who would do that?"

"He refused the power so he could be with his family and friends." The blue-haired ghoul stated with serene rationality.

Lilith found that idiotic. "That is so…"

"Adorable!" Cleo stated as she put both hands over her black uniform jacket. "He would give up everything to be with little old me is just about the most romantic thing anyone could ever do!"

Something in Ghoulia's brain clicked. She yelped, it sounded like a hiccup, and covered her mouth. Not hearing a smart-alec moan was like receiving ice cream to Lilith. The sweet treat was drizzled with sprinkles as she realized what the blue-brain was keeping to herself.

"Yeah, Deuce is a real old-fashion sentimental but wait, Cleo, what if his father asked him to give up more of what he already had?" I'll get what I want at the risk of bear-trapping my own foot, Lilith thought as she continued revealing a big bad truth, "He gave up god-hood first round so with that thinking he may have been crazy enough to give up, I dunno, say maybe his monster-hood too. That would leave nothing but a….normie left."

The mummy stopped bouncing. A cold shiver crept up into her soul. She was reminded of her time stuck in a sarcophagus. The long wait in the hopeless dark….

If you want to die….do it yourself.

Ghoulia walked to sit on the edge of the couch. She put her hand on her bestfriend's back.

"Something else is happening, isn't it?" Viperine asked.

Cleo swallowed her terror and said. "I need to talk to my boyfriend."

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In the Monster High Dorms

The leafy ghoul that was Venus McFlytrap was losing patience with the stubborn liar. The plant-monster hated plastic plants as much as she hated plastic bags blowing everywhere. The only thing she hated as much as that were plastic people.

"This guy is tough. If he won't respond to pain, then he'll respond to pleasure." Says to her ghoulfriends. Rochelle had his blood on her claws, she was agreeable with taking a new tactic. The copper ghoul ceased polishing her razor blades when hearing her sweetheart's idea.

"You don't mean you'll…." Robecca barely passes the words through her cylinders.

"I'll spray my spores in his face and make him speak only the truth to our questions." Venus raises a fisted hand, from her veins grow vines with leaves and pods.

"Oh my stars and garter! Honey, you almost stopped my gears." The steam-powered ghoul says as she takes Venus' petal soft hand.

Her brown clogged eyes stare in Venus' blue eyes. "Becky, no. You're the only rocket-rough ghoul I'd do that to."

Having her closest friends fall in love gave great happiness to gargoyle. The fact that they were also her dorm-mates, whom she saw during most hours of the day, sometimes became too much to stomach. Rochelle cleared her throat.

The goo-goo eyes are traded for threatening glares towards their prisoner.

The trio liked Deuce Gorgon, he was always good-natured and helpful to them. They did not like the boy pretending to be Deuce. He sat dripping with lemon juice and Dead Sea salt. He was grim and stayed silent to their probing.

Venus blew her spores into 'Deuce's' face. He coughed and spat on their plush pink rug. Rochelle went behind him and pulled his head back. The snakes moved mechanically, soullessly unlike Robecca.

"Who are you?" Venus asked. She watched him choke on his tongue before spilling his mind open for seagulls to feast on.

"I am Posiedon, God of the Oceans. I am the father of Medusa Chrysaor Gorgon, you know him as Deuce, whom I find to be a brave, compassionate, gorgeous, short-sighted, sentimental, sponge-loafer-rebel wasting his potential and my chance at finally rubbing a stellular offspring in my big, stupid, exciting, well hung brother Zeus' face. Even after taking his demon eyes he still rebuffs me. I tried seducing the angelfish Rochelle for bait but alas you three have admirably gutted me. Deuce is fortunate to have the like of Athena's spawns behind him but he is a wet fool, a great fool and I wished he'd see me as a great father because I want a fishing buddy and I know the boy makes a fine friend."

The three ghouls blinked. They then huddle away from Poseidon as he blinks at his own words.

"How do we know that's the truth?" The multi-pierced ghoul asked her ghoulfriend and girlfriend.

"Does anyone know Deuce well enough to answer that?" The bolted and geared ghoul wondered.

Rochelle sighed as her iCoffin helped her none. "Cleo isn't answering."

"I loathe that oyster toadfish!" Poseidon said after being asked by no one.

"No one asked." Though I don't blame you, she never recycles Venus thinks.

Steam releases from Robecca's ear as an idea hits her. "I know who we can ask."

Fifteen minutes pass before the bubble-gum pink-haired Rochelle walks to her dorm-door. A boy wearing square glasses and a bow-tie stands in the frame.

"Hi, guys." The half-normie says with kindness.

Rochelle is happy to see him until she sees an orange tail swish behind him. Leather-sleeved clawed-arms come from behind Jackson in a choke-hold hug.

"Jacky, why are we visiting the two lezbos and their baby?" Toralei says as she lazily looks into the trio's dormroom.

"Tori, we talked about this." Jackson says, ignoring the soft rubs from her ginger hair against his ear.

"Fine, I won't say anything at all." The tabby sees Posiedon. "Couldn't handle a four-way could you? Me-ow, do I know a guy that has you beat, and-"

"Tori." Jackson warns in a stern tone. She stops the nuzzling and pushes him out of her way. The werecat hisses at her bespectacled sweetheart before curling onto Rochelle's primly set bed.

"We don't miss her on the team." Venus states as she stands next to her special-lady-friend.

Jackson was 89% sure he didn't fear his monster friends and classmates. As he examined the bruised and beaten 'Deuce', from afar, he admitted awe, envy and a strong respect that could be confused for fear.

Rochelle was butterscotch sweet, proven well when she offered the boy a cup of herbal tea.

"Venus grew it herself." Rochelle exclaimed, causing her friend to blush a dark green.

"It's fanger-riffic." Jackson chuckles at his attempt at slang then asks, "Beakers on the table, who is that?"

The man that resembled his friend was not someone Jackson wanted to drink tea with. Under his jaw were veins throbbing in from pain and fury; his mouth was a think line of displeasure.

The black and grey speckled ghoul crossed her hands over her skirt as she asked, "Jackson, did Deuce talk to you before he disappeared?"

There was panic in Monster High's halls, fear and confusion. It was erupting into chaos; Jackson took Toralei's lead in the 'head for high ground' route. They hung out in the highest trees and watched the students scramble in the windows. Jackson was ashamed of cowardice but he thought it was smarter than sticking his normie noise into troubled minds. Also, the kitty's disregard for community alliance lead to many music players' demise and the Jekyll boy was grateful to her.

What Rochelle was asking was bravery to face the issue everyone was scared of. Jackson told her, "He made me swear to keep that a secret."

The trio tell him what Posiedon told them. Jackson looked at Poseidon's mask again. He was afraid, amazed but not impressed with the God. The nerdy normie resolved to break his swear.

Jackson sighed. "It's true what he said about Deuce. He came to me after….what happened to him. He asked me would I, the normie, go to Monster High if I had a choice."

The four ghouls and Poseidon listened to the beat of silence before he continued.

"I said it might be different for him because he was still Deuce. Maybe not the super cool, walk tall and take nothing from no one Deuce Gorgon but the same, well, dude. He didn't believe…His reputation is sacred to him. He'd rather everyone believe the best and realize the worse."

The blue-streak-haired ghoul put a hand to her chest as she felt her gears go into overdrive. "Poor boy."

"Sacreboo! Deuce was very wrong in thinking we wouldn't love, er, like him anymore!" Rochelle said as her wing fluttered.

"I think everyone would have a good laugh about it first but Deuce would really be the guy I'd wait for to joke at his luck." The plant monster says as she strokes the shaved half of her head.

The tabby scoffs. "How lame is he, really? Jackson is a twice the man and he's only around half the time!"

"Toralei, you are a heartless bag of fleas!" Venus says as her most thorny vines crawl towards the werecat.

Toralei swipes at the living shrubs before jumping on Jackson's lap. The chair nearly falls back if Rochelle was not close to catch it.

"What happened has happened. Now we must find Deuce and explain to him how wrong he was."

"And how much we've all missed him." Robecca says, twisting her thumb around. Her stone-born friend nods.

Venus stops rubbing her head. "The school lost its cool when he left. And we need it- him back like yesterday."

Reminding them that he never left, Poseidon interjects, "Such blind devotion from this little learning institute. It might as well be my boy's temple. He made you all love him by doing small miracles every other day."

"Tell me, does anyone in the universe love you?" Robecca waited to hear him say 'no'.

"My Olympian family undoubtedly, a net full of exes and children on earth and-" Poseidon gargles as what might have been his last weapon is revealed, "And, the fin-folk of this school are all descendants of mine. Loyal and decent are those folk, they keep me alive. They also kept my powers strong before my damned brother put this mortality curse on me."

"So we keep Lagoona and Gil away from him." The jean-trimmed ghoul states. "Where is the Argh Team during all of this?"

The Boo Team go to their iCoffins to find Frankie, Lagoona, Clawdeen, Draculura, Ghoulia, Abbey and Cleo. Without answers from a single ghoul, they turn back to the mouthy Poseidon.

Jackson sits on the fleur-de-lis spinning-chair as he rubs the peeved neko's head. "I could've tried harder to make him come home and see the others but he stone-walled me. He felt broken before anyone really took a crack at it."

Scoffing again, the ghoul with neck-short hair flexes her bendy spin to look at Jackson. "Baby, you are a clawesome friend who promised to keep a secret. Right now it seems stupid cause everyone's all crazy scared about turning into ugly, drab, squirmy normies but that's all Deuce's fault. Not yours."

Toralei was unpleasant 90% of the time. In the short-lasting time she let Jackson stare into her mesmerizing green eyes, the mad-science-fair-whiz saw she was worth all the scratches.


	8. Heads

"Let's agree not to search for toxic traps in this building anymore." Clawdeen stated the four-part team walked through the cubicles.

"You're ignoring why traps do what they do." Deuce said as he heard the soft crunch of paper under his shoes. 

Lagoona noticed the narrow walkway they were entering had a floor layered with papers. "Gils, and Deuce, the stink plant was my fault so I'll take on the next dill that comes our way."

The cubicle maze was closing in, less entrances to see into individuals' workspaces. Walking towards the unknown was only a bit less hopeless than turning around to the elevators that brought them nowhere. They pressed each and every button for the different floors and the machine moved like it was going up and down but always brought them back to the same floor. The lights were getting dimmer so the monsters depended on their phones for light. They saw the papers on the floors weren't blank. Letters, numbers and crude symbols were printed on the pages in codes the teens didn't bother to decipher.

"Does anyone else think its freaky weird that Jackson is dating Toralei?" Frankie asked.

The werewolf's scoff was almost a laugh. "They both need attention and now they're giving and getting it, finally."

The human let out chuckle at the werewolf who picked up on his direction of thought on her words. "Do not go down that gutter."

"I'm happy for the dude, he took losing the last girlfriend bad." Deuce said, feeling his abnormal self again whilst taking about his friends' lives.

The mint-green ghoul was about to defend her past when her male friend said, "That Claire did a number on his brain."

The blonde-sea-creature watched Frankie blush. She put a finned arm around the black& white hair. They shared a smile and a silent agreement on the matter when it's best to let things pass. Frankie didn't see the stack of papers until after she tripped on them. She caught herself against the cubicle wall but dropped her iCoffin in the process.  
Her seaweed-sweet friend bent down to grab it and saw something shuffle in the light.

"Hold up, mates." She whispered. They heard and stopped to look at her. They watched her large green eyes trail from the phone screen toward the ceiling. Against the grey and dim florescent lights a copy-machine stuck upside down. Small red lights glowed on the hunky square machine. It was directly above Deuce. The boy in the muscle shirt motioned with his thumbs for Lagoona and Frankie to walk east while Clawdeen made room for him to walk west. The ghouls barely put air between the floor and their heels before the copy machine fell from the ceiling.

Deuce shuffled quickly out of its way. Before hitting the ground the scanner lit up and released a long run of papers, which became an arm and caught itself on the floor. The scanner glowed and rumbled many more times until two more limbs joined the arm. It lifted itself up.

"Anyone have jelly on them?" Deuce asked, his sunglasses flickering between his three friends; each shook their head.

"Why would we carry jelly?" Frankie didn't see why he'd announce he was hungry at that time. The stitched-together ghoul didn't back away from the paper-machine creature; she watched another release of paper to fly together and become a head. To her, the creature looked like a paper-mache dinosaur missing a tail.

It had a head but not a face. As it stretched out its face in an aggressive punch Frankie decided creatures with ugly spirits didn't need faces when they were soon to be destroyed.

The head pulled back then punched the space Deuce stood at, before he shuffled away from that spot in milliseconds.

Fighting mindless animals, protecting pretty ghouls, feeling like a pawn; all were part of the 'Hero' game Deuce took on when he was thirteen. He felt like a squirming chump after completing the challenge Poseidon created.

Part of him wanted to let the copy-machine pound him- if he couldn't be a monster what was the point of this unlife? He couldn't see the point in playing hero when it was all make-believe. Everything his father was associated with was phony.

The human waited for the paper-beast to punch again. The move was pounce-like, it made him miss his little dudes. He dodged the blow but was close enough to the neck to grab. He took the neck with both hands and twisted until the rope of white&black tore off. His hands gained tiny stinging cuts and a bitter-sweetness; he hated playing along but knew he had to do it.

Frankie watched the machine wobble without it's head. She asked, "Why did you ask for jelly earlier?"

"To jam the machine."

Clawdeen tapped on the cubicle wall as if it were a drum set to end Deuce's bad joke. Not bad for a human, Deuce thought. He was proud for a second before realizing the copy-machine defeat was too easy for a human. The teens heard the machine's scan again and saw it's light beep on and off. From the torn neck came two more heads; both as plain and punch-ready as the first.

They aimed for the brown haired boy and auburn-haired werewolf, missing both chances.

"Cutting off the head doesn't work for this thing?" Clawdeen stated as her claws extended, outgrowing the nailpolish color.

Deuce took in the ache of his hands balling into fists. "Glad to see you're paying attention."

"Lagoona, I think it's our turn." The ghoul with the bolts said, her hands sparking with electricity.

The SKRM racer saw an opening and though she wasn't wearing her skates, her heels were still set for action. She rolled her shoulder muscles before skidding under the machine's center. She refused to dissect a frog. Lagoona didn't refuse to learn the anatomy of bodies and the result of slicing them open. While under the machine, she slide off her left shoe which just happened to be made of real shells, sharp enough to break into the cracks of the equipment and jimmy open the compartment where the internal organs/gears were. She stuck a webbed hand inside, her hands were slick and she moved through the functions.

The beast had gained twelve more heads. couldn't protect herself with gentle force. The Normie and Werewolf were dodging well and felt good about their progress. They felt better when they saw the heads begin to shake and beat against one another. Lagoona rolled away when she was content with her damage. She held up a thumb to Frankie, the signal for things to get more electric.

With grace and conscious of her decision to not hold back, Frankie put a hand to the creature's body. It was a helpless animal, in a way, and a danger to her friends. She released a might zap of her inner charge.  
The creature turned black from the roast and dropped with smoke and fire spiraling up.

Clawdeen ran over the creature to fist pump her heroines. "Where are my ghoulfriends at?!" She happily and rhetorically asked.

The girls playfully punched her fists. They then laughed and giggled in delight. Deuce walked up with Lagoona's shoe in his hand.

"You ghouls never cease to impress." His grin reminded them of the old him.

Lagoona took her shoe back and put a hand on his shoulder. It was a friend gesture and a balance for her to slip her ink-stained shoe back on.

"I have something to get that out." Clawdeen had learned an encyclopedia of stain-removal tricks when her mother 'delighted' the family with twin boy-pups.

The she-wolf looked down at her sandwich stained uniform suit. The smell of ink was growing excessive and it truly gained her attention when ink was coming up to her toes. Her toes were at least two inches off the ground!

The group saw the copy-machine was bleeding black blood from the center Lagoona pierced. The smell told Clawdeen it was ink seeping out by the gallons. It was more ink coming out than the cube of burnt paper and clogs should've held.

The smoke-alarm turned on the sprinklers, which were also filling dropping heavily on their heads. Lagoona liked the moisture; she didn't like seeing greyish water come up to her land-lover friends' knees. They shushed their way back to the open cubicles to stand on the desk. The greyish tides came splashing in, they grew chopping and darker.

"We could swim it." Frankie suggested, not seeing another option.

"I wouldn't in that sickly grey mess." Lagoona admitted, watching little day-to-day calendars get washed away.

"The desks are nailed down, so we can't float on them." Deuce said, wishing he could stone the liquid in his sight; it could've become a barrier for them.

"We've gotten through everything else!" Clawdeen tried to see a way out, she tried to keep calm and see a solution to saving the four. The teens didn't panic, they thought about resolutions to the issue but none came.

"How about confessions?" Frankie suggested, the least they could do was continue talking and listening until their end.

Clawdeen bit her lip but let in the sentiments she had for the people she was with; the friends she loved. "I'll go first; I wish I had taken Draculaura when I had the chance!"

Frankie's heart tugged at the release of truth. No one wanted to hear but keeping it inside would've hurt forever. "I regret dying a virgin!"

Deuce didn't say how much he regretted but he exposed one little secret. "I had a dream where I did it with Cleo and Nefera!"

Lagoona felt sadder than the rest of them. "I regret not recycling more! It was the least I could've done!"

The salt-water monster's friends stared at her.

"Lagoona, you made the rest of us look like bastards." The auburn-haired werewolf stated.

"I love you bastards!" Lagoona took Clawdeen by the arms. Her bright green eyes seeped into Clawdeen's shining amber eyes.

"You too, sweetie!" She whimpered, her ears folding down.

"Aww, babes." Deuce hugged Clawdeen from the back, it was amazing how underneath the perfume she reminded him of Clawd.

Frankie looks at her friends, she isn't satisfied. "It is not ending like this!"

She sparked at the stitches; the ghoul had an idea. She climbed on Deuce's shoulder, surprising him yet getting his blind assistance. At the ceiling she pushed and pushed until a title sifted. On the tips of her heels, she looked into the dark crawl. She let her hand slip in. she felt it punch the structure: it wasn't strong as steal but it would have to do. Frankie pulled herself in then fitted her hand in place. Deuce got the idea, he pulled himself in after her; he worried about his weight but took the chance. He put both hands out; right arm grabbing the amphibian and the left holding onto fleece-soft furry paws.

Before they decided this was the best idea the scooted through the titles. The cramp space was stuffy and the titles werecracking under them, it was not a lasting vacation place. Clawdeen's eyes saw more in the dark. When she saw the soft metal of the air duck, she sliced it open with the grit of her claws and pulled open a hole large enough for Deuce to scoot into. They pushed in, feeling the clean refreshing blow of the air condition. They continued scooting in the airducks with the silently agreed goal they'd eventually find an exit.

"When we get out of here, you are treating each of us to shoe shopping." Clawdeen told Deuce, not caring how far their spree would set him back.

The former-gorgon had a guessimation worth a car to make it up to them. "Fair enough. I can also get you ghouls brownies."  
He doesn't know we know, Lagoona thought then said, "Bake us Cleo's"

"What?" Deuces asked as if he had no idea what Cleo's were at all; he was not convincing to anyone.

"Drop the act, mate, Cleo couldn't resist showing off the cookies you invented." Lagoona informed him.

Cleo's were a type of shortbread cookie Deuce had concocted. They were rich and spiked on the outside with a warm and lemony sweet center. The middle custard was dyed a bright blue.

The young man tapped back into his confidence of letting whatever happens happened because he loved his Cleo's and liked the idea of making more. Also he liked getting public about cooking. "So what's you think of them?"

"Tasty, I ate six." Frankie stated, hoping he'd make more for the entire school.


	9. Beseech

Quote from Beatrice Cook, Till Fish Do Us Part, 1949

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Cold, tired, hungry and crawling in an airduct was not the most fangtastic adventure the ghouls ever had. Frankie tried to say it was all 'beneficial to growing up'. The tired stares from her friends shut her up on that try.

The light at the end of their tunnel lead them to a lunch room. Deuce and Clawdeen pushed the barrier between them and the vending machine. The four teens hopped on to the floor and stared at the treasure trove of salty, fatty, and sugary treats.

"Who's buying?" Lagoona asked as she tried to gather the tangled net that was her sun-bleached-blonde hair.

Frankie and Deuce watched a chair fly into the candy wrapper's coffin-shaped machine. It left a spider-web crack. In contact with Clawdeen's shoe the space between the teens and the candy shattered.

"Anyone else worried these could be poisonous?" The boy with limp brown hair asked as he held up a Nutty-Batty bar.

The gold-moon-pendant-wearing werewolf had an opened Hunchback-bun under her fangs when he made the statement. She examined the frosted donut-like treat before tossing it over her shoulder.

"If we don't break out soon I may eat you guys." Clawdeen stated. "Nothing personal."

The laboratory-creation nodded. "I would happily cook my hands and legs to keep you from starving, Clawdeen."

The two ghouls knotted hands while Lagoona and Deuce sat down at a table. They noticed somemonster had been playing soliscare recently.

"You're still not going to call on to your dad, are you mate?" The ghoul asked. She watched a vein in his neck twitch.

"Why would I when things are going so well?" The normie said, blowing a brown hair lock out of his face.

"Deuce, we've been in here for hours with a lot of trouble by each corner-"

"And took down each threat like bosses. Lagoona, we are getting out of here because you ghouls are incredible forces of the supernatural and I'm too stubborn to die or comply to anything or anyone."

Deuce takes off his sunglasses and looks into her big, bright green eyes. "Do you trust thst I know what I'm doing?"

"I think you're clam near convincing." The sea-creature said in respect to her insane friend.

"That'll do." The boy put his sunglasses back on. He then suggested that they walk through the dark, creepy open door. The door was the only entrance and exit to the room, beside the airduct. It seemed the most logical next step.

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Jackson Jekyll was unconcerned with getting looks from humans. No matter what he did he never looked right. Other boys would find that as a reason to give up trying to do good all together. Jackson was too smart to feel sorry for himself. The half-monster boy kept his head high and lived contently with the monster population….most of the time.

As he drove to his good-and-missing friend's home, Jackson felt a bit like a parade float. On his passenger side was his bi-ever-curious kittyfriend humming as her heels rested on the dashboard. Behind him was what looked like his friend Deuce but was actually a trapped god in mutant vines. On the roof was a gargoyle gently enjoying the breeze alongside a robot letting gentle wind pass through her black& blue hair.

They stopped in front of a house with tall white pillars. The yard had many statues. Some were abstract creations and the rest were shocked monsters ranging from ghoul-scouts to business-suited mansters. Jackson found a spare key in the stoned eye-cream-delivery troll's mouth.

The six walked into the Gorgons' home. They learned that Medusa had a strong preference for pastel colors. Standing in her marble kitchen was everyone's favorite genius, Ghoulia. She moaned a 'welcome to the party' to the group as she put a handful of grapes in a bowl. A normie girl pouted at the zombie, she looked as mean as the safari animal she wore should've been.

Lilith took the bowl away from Ghoulia. "You do enough, Ghoulia, let me give her the grapes."

"Not like you're going to get much back anyway." Ghoulia moaned. She then saw the 'gorgon boy' being tugged in by Venus and she gasped.

"You found him? Oh great." The hunter stated with as much excitement as an empty grave.

Rochelle sensed something bitter in Lilith's tone. Before she asked why Lilith was even there, their Fearleading captain walked in with a monster who had Gorgon resemblance. The mummy went from a face of gloom to blooming delight when she saw the savaged and beaten 'Deuce'.

"Deuce!" Cleo said as she threw her arms around his neck. "Oh thank Ra! Deucey you gave me such a fright! I've been biting my nails, reapplying make-up and simply becoming a tangled mess with worry! But I can unlive with all that if you just tell me you're okay and here to stay with me forever and ever."

Toralei grinned as if she found a new ball of yarn with a million dollar check on top. Venus felt awkward standing close from the oblivious Cleo's touch on the vines around Poseidon.

"You are undesirable on all accounts and out of your mind if you think I'd spend another second of such close contact by my own free will! You toilet-paper-wrapped hag made from incompetency and rotted bone." The Deuce look-a-like told the ghoul he detested worst most of all the teenagers in the universe.

Cleo blinked and dropped herself away from him. The Promzillia Queen put her emerald ring on the same hand as her diamond and sapphire rings. The princess backhand slapped Poseidon. She examined the flesh left in between the facets of her jewelry. She slapped him again, scratching harder.

The mechanical girl flinched as she imagined the pain. Toralei laughed, shaking Jackson as she held on to him to keep from rolling on the floor.

"No one speaks to me unless it is with praise and submission." Cleo told him. Lilith's veins boiled with the desire to lick the blood off Cleo's hand.

Poseidon spit blood on the marble floor. "Stupid regality. You think you're more than mere mortal because of meaningless titles. Learn this now; you are not."

"I have not been a mere mortal in almost six thousand years. You do not recognize who you are dealing with!" She felt soft zombie hands and hard-pressed scaly hands on her shoulders.

"Cleo, this is Poseidon." Viperine stated to the man who she didn't think resembled her cousin at all.

Cleo's high eyebrows narrowed. "You're the worm who's been torturing my Deucey!"

Ghoulia and Viperine held her back, letting her only release screams. Venus had to tighten the reigns of her vines when Posiedon tried to walk closer to Cleo. She also felt the imposter's muscles flex.

"You're the wench holding down my son!" The god's words were choked as vines squirmed down his throat.

"Lies." The mummy said softly, soaking how wonderfully painful the vines were in the liar's mouth. "Those are lies."

"Did you find out where real Deuce is?" Ghoulia asked the new arrivals as she petted her beastfriend's hand.

"Yes." The elegant lady robot stated, "He told us Deuce, Frankie, Clawdeen and Lagoona are in Fearchago."

"The only thing stopping us from jumping on a plane right now is the school." The sun dependent monster explained to the small portion of the Argh Team.

"How absurd! Bloodgood has never stopped anyone from jumping on a plane before." Cleo said, wishing she had a servant close by to snag a plane right that second.

"We know we can go, Cleo, but we need to help the school first. It's going to be as challenging finding the abiologic origin of scarility as since we lost Deuce." The Jekyll protégée said.

"Hot nerd alert." Toralei whispered in his ear before biting the tip.

"It would be worse without me, but you are right about the school. A queen's work is never done." The diamond studded ghoul sighed.

Poseidon rolled his eyes, the rude gesture was met with a vine piercing his lungs.

"Cleo, it's going to take more than a royal speech. The school needs to know Deuce is alright." Rochelle said.

"Even though we aren't 100% certain of that." Lilith told the gargoyle wearing a prudishly long skirt.

Rochelle remembered the nightmares from history classes about normies would who crush gargoyles deep in stony sleep. The fleece-wearing ghoul did not fear the VanHellscream girl but did suspect she wasn't friend material.

"The school needs proof." The taffy-eyed ghoul stated.

"For the good of the people, but how do we convince them of that?" Ghoulia said with a bit of DeNile doubt in her voice.

The clever zombie then looked at the Poseidon pretending to be Deuce. Cleo isn't going to like this, Ghoulia thought before approaching the Social Scream Queen

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Pitch black in every angle; in retrospect going through a dark doorway wasn't the smartest decision. Neither was going to barely-related brother for help so Deuce saw all the reasons to be hard on himself. He'd blamed becoming a Normie for all his stupid decisions. Looking back, being a stupid Gorgon started the entire mess in the first place. If it was a friend's problem, Deuce would've told them to be mature and better then they wanted to be about seeing their distant dad. If it was a friend in his position, he would've seen all the angles and picked the more peaceful route i.e. just going through the quest Poseidon came up with and then saying goodbye for another couple years. If he were still a monster, he and his snakes would've hissed against that plan because getting stuck in Poseidon's obedient-ring wasn't a solution to his problem. Ignoring it till it slithered away wasn't going to happen either. Suffering in silence, thinking the problem would only hurt him, wasn't what Deuce was going to continue to do about it.

Talking to his father, the second to last thing he'd ever want to do was the boy's best attempt at saving the skeleton crew he cared for most.

He'd lost the ghouls in the darkness; he didn't sense them in any way. The very last thing he ever wanted to happen was happening. Letting go the last ounce of pride he had, Deuce said to the darkness;

"Poseidon...Father. I beseech you."

It was easy to say. The waiting for Poseidon to come down and say something ominously obnoxious got his satyr much more.

Deuce scoffed. "Dude."

He felt an abnormally luke-warm hand touch his arm.

"Deuce?"

"Dude, if you're pretending to be Frankie I swear I'll-"

"No, it's me." She released a small spark of electricity. "The first time we met you stoned Heath Burns in my defense. It was really sweet."

Poseidon would never pay attention to me while in school so yeah it's Frankie. "Thanks for mentioning it. I miss back then."

"It aren't over yet. If my speeches were worth anything they should've taught people to see Monster High is a family place."

"Frankie, you've been noble and brave in everything you've done, too bad good advice doesn't stick with people for long."

"Maybe that's true, but I have faith in people. I have faith in you doing whatever it is you have to do with Pos-adenine. "

"It's what I need right now." Deuce told his friend.

"Can I ask what 'beseeching' means?"

"It's suppose to be like calling the dude to my location immediately, but that's a no-go."

"Maybe the line is tied up?"

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The world's last hope for a green living (a title Venus invented for herself) felt her vines twist off Poseidon as if she was pulling her own hands away from his skin. Lilith took Gorgons' first aid kit to Poseidon to clean his wounds; she had a careful eye to pick out the thorns stuck in his arties.

"Don't be so careless with it, child." Poseidon told the ghoul bandaging his sores. She responded by tugging the wraps tightly until he went blue in the face.

Cleo's bespectacled blue friend moaned against her fury. The princes loosened the bandages as if she were doing it to someone she liked.

"What's the deal again?" Toralei asked as she lazily sat across the Gorgon's living room couch.

"Poseidon helps us fix the school and we fix his costume problem." Jackson explained as he brought down cleaner, less torn clothing.

"And by his word as a God he will not take revenge in any form." Robecca said; Venus did not see fear in her ghoulfriend's eyes but a smidge of reasonable doubt around her mahogany pupils.

"I do not need your intervene, guppies." Poseidon said as he watched his fake blood stain Medusa's peach-colored carpet.

"But you do, Lord of the Sea." The bleach-blonde Gorgon said as she applied a base to the fake-Deuce face. "We can beseech a god for help and make a clean deal. Your powers will be returned to you and the immortal perspective to forget this egregious mishap with us monsters for the next few centuries with easily apply for our own security."

Poseidon said nothing in response to the one who resembled his son. She had similar eyes and follicles, under her curly wig.

"The gods will forget about you for what will feel like a millennium without our assistance. Be wise, old one. Choose the peaceful, easy answer." The reptilian woman told the beaten god.

Poseidon saw this creature's good Greek sense shine through the other attributes. Revenge on pesky beast children would not return his dignity or ease the storm in his soul. The Sea God looked at the child of Ra; he considered her ugly but inspiring.

Fake Deuce's expression on Cleo was soft and unpleasantly creepy.

"What is on your face?" The mummy princess practically spat out the question.

"I've decided."

"Decided on what?"

Rochelle and Cleo shared a glance then looked at Poseidon. He stood with a sort of swagger and grace that reminded the two ghouls of a lovelier gentlemonster.

"The trout that doesn't think two jumps and several runs ahead of the average fisherman is mighty apt to get fried." Poseidon said as he looked at the ghouls through shades not unlike his son's.

"What does this mean?" Rochelle asked the pretty face: pretty but lacking in substance around the edges.

Smooth as a rippling wave, Poseidon slides to Cleo's side and puts a hand around her waist. "I shall behave. You have my word as a god."

Cleo's knife-sharp nails dug into the god's mortal hand and dragged it upwards.

Ghoulia pressed on her iCoffin to contact Spectra Vondergheist.

"Ladies and leeches, rattle my chains because Deuce Gorgon has been finally found!" The Ghostly Gossip said on her live-feed at the Gorgon home.

Viewed by every single monster of Monster High were Spectra alongside MH's Power Couple.

"Deuce, monsters want to know where have you been this last week? Was it awful? Was it mad Normie scientist? Was there a little action on the side?" Spectra asked, her black sclera and ice-blue irises zig zagged at every scratch and tear she saw. His condition made her feel truly other-worldly.

"First off, dude, there were never any Normie scientist dudes that tried to mess with this dude, dude." 'Deuce' said to the ghost.

"Are you certain of that?" Spectra hoped for the worst and expected the best.

"I was pulled through the wringer, dude, but by shifty half-brother who was trying to get me into his business of smuggling knock-off designer purses. He asked me to push them on ghouls I know. Dude truth."

A collective gasp went through the air as every freaky-fab ghoul shivered with disgust.

"The horror." Spectra shook against the idea.

Cleo was on the white couch next to him, they held hands. "My Deuce Darling has too much integrity for such a dirty crowd, he fought his way out, fang and scale, to come back to us. He called me, when he finally could, and the ghouls and I picked him up and brought him home."

"How dashing, how spine-chilling!" The violet spirit loved the suspense. She loved watching Cleo DeNile's face grow mushy while still shining like a star attraction.

"Knowing my-our Deuce is safe at home is worth crossing a desert. I'm just so happy to know were he is. And to know he still wants me all to him, as much as I want him beside me for the rest of forever." Cleo said as she stared at 'Deuce'.

He gave a wide, cheesy grin to Cleo and then to Spectra. The mummy still looked misty-eyed, 'Deuce' tried to cure this. "Aww, come here, you dude, you."

The 'gorgon' got her check, then turned her head to kiss her lips. Cleo put her hands on his snakes. The lips were glued onto one another but when nothing dicey happened Spectra took over the show again.

"Order has been resorted to Monster High. A little soon, if you ask me but I'm sure there's more lurking in these halls if we sit and wait for it to pop out of the shadows for a polite BOO! "


End file.
